Maruti Vitara Brezza to be exported to right hand drive markets

Maruti's new sub-four-metre compact SUV, Vitara Brezza, which is set to be a showstopper at the upcoming Auto Expo 2016, has notched a new milestone in the carmaker's research and development journey in India and will also be exported to India-like markets later.

The project will be headed by CV Raman, executive director of engineering, Maruti Suzuki India. Speaking to our sister publication Autocar Professional, Raman said that while initially the sales focus of the Vitara Brezza will be the domestic market, it will subsequently also be exported to India-like, right-hand-drive markets like Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. “We have the mandate to develop models for Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America,” he said.

In fact, Maruti Suzuki has been given this mandate to manufacture models for these developing markets by its Japanese parent for the past 3-4 years, with initial models that made their way into the markets being the Alto 800 and Alto K10 followed by the Ertiga and Swift Dzire. But what makes the Vitara Brezza a lot different is that the entire project was done in India, unlike the Alto 800 and Alto K10, without Suzuki’s help. Developed over a period of three-and-a-half years, the Vitara Brezza compact SUV has succeeded in achieving the optimum utilisation of space in terms of seating and luggage, and will attract excise duty exemption, much like the compact Ford EcoSport.

The carmaker has used one of the platforms from the Suzuki product portfolio and a common engine and developed it into the Vitara Brezza. An important aspect of the development has been the R&D capabilities of  Maruti's Rohtak facility which include crash labs and test tracks that have been harnessed to a large extent, with only a few tests such as wind tunnel tests and long-term endurance rust tests undertaken at Suzuki Motor Corporation.