Tuesday, June 14, 2011
By Pranjal Gera
Hunt for Suzuki’s right partner
With the announcement by Volkswagen about its possession of 19.9% stakes in the Suzuki Motors, the market was shaken up. Everyone was expecting VW to go slow, after its acquisition of the Porsche brand. VW seem to have some other plans in their minds and they are doing everything and anything they can to become the world number one in the global auto industry.
According to some rumors that were, reported earlier, Volkswagen planned to revamp the Suzuki A-Star and make it as their own entry-level car in the hatchback segment. However, these plans have been axed from the VW commotion list as was reported by us earlier.
Then the Maruti SX4 rolled out with a Fiat Multijet engine. Then there was some news, that Maruti Suzuki will still be using the same Fiat Multijet Diesel engine in their 2011 versions of Maruti Swift and Maruti Swift Dzire. As the case seems either VW TDi engines proved to be too pricey to get hold of or had advanced maintenance expenditure. In addition, at a high-level meeting, the possibility that Fiat’s auxiliary company Magneti Marelli would supply automated manual transmission system to Suzuki in India, was also discussed by the bosses of the companies.
On the other front, Suzuki is offering Fiat to build next age band of the Sedici that is a Maruti SX4 crossover in Italy itself. In similar ways, Suzuki also plans to make an SUV for Fiats other acquisition Chrysler. As for now, there has been nothing great from the joint venture of VW and Suzuki.
As it seems, Fiat would really have been great partner with Suzuki in the first place. Here in India the Tata-Fiat partnership has failed to make any strong impression in the auto market. Both Fiat and Suzuki definitely seem to have chosen wrong partners to work with.
