MPV to be first all-Indian Suzuki

The first Suzuki designed, styled and engineered in India could be on international roads, including Australia within three years.

Displayed in concept form at the 2010 Delhi autoshow last January, the R3 is a three-row, five-door MPV that will go on sale in India in early 2012. To be available in both petrol and turbodiesel versions, it is expected to quickly become one of Maruti-Suzuki's top-selling domestic models.

Maruti currently builds a range of Suzuki-designed and engineered products at its two plants near Delhi. This year the company will build more than one million cars including all Australian market Altos. It dominates the Indian domestic marketplace with nearly 50 per cent share.

The R3 will be Maruti's first ground-up car. Though engineered primarily for India and other developing markets (both left and right-hand drive), Maruti sources say the vehicle could be upgraded to suit developed markets such as Australia and Europe "within a year or so" of its on sale date in India.

Re-engineering would need to include the incorporation of full safety equipment and driver aids such as curtain airbags and stability control. The initial tranche of development on the car is largely completed without the necessary work to comply the car for high-spec markets.

Maruti will not market the car under the R3 badge. The company's sales and marketing execs say, however, that the official name has yet to be decided.

The vehicle will be powered by the choice of a four-cylinder 1.2-litre variant of the K Series petrol triple that currently powers the Alto. The most popular version in India, however, will use the same 55kW/190Nm 1.3-litre DDiS turbodiesel engine that dominates Swift sales volume in Maruti's home market.

Both engines will be matched to a manual transmission for domestic consumption.

"Engineering the car from scratch for the full world market would add to our cost in the Indian version," Maruti international and export marketing executive Rajesh Singh told the Carsales Network.

The vehicle is not yet on the radar for Suzuki Australia, said local boss, Tak Hayasaki.

"The Peoplemover segment has been a flat market in Australia but there could be some possibility for us [to add the R3]. I really haven't even considered the car for our market yet. But we don't normally say 'no thank you' to new product if we think we can sell the car."

Hayasaki stated that after price the first consideration would be the availability of the car in the correct specification (ie: automatic transmission) and with an appropriate engine package. Currently Maruti-Suzuki does not produce automatic transmissions in India. Like systems such as airbags and stability control modules, the technology is imported.

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