Suzuki By Toyota Kenya Marks First Step In Joint Collaboration

• Suzuki by Toyota Kenya is the first real step taken by both companies after announcing a model sharing agreement in March 2018.
• The collaboration aims to fill gaps in the respective company’s portfolio by borrowing models from each other.
• In this case, Toyota Kenya is using Suzuki’s compact cars to fill a big gap in its entry-level offerings, the smallest car in the Toyota Kenya lineup is the Corolla.
• The Suzuki lineup in Toyota Kenya’s portfolio includes the Alto 800, Omni Cargo, Gypsy, Swift, Jimny, Ciaz and the Vitara (not the Brezza)

The first fruits of the collaboration between Japanese car manufacturers Suzuki and Toyota are beginning to ripen after the announcement by both companies to share their portfolio with each other last year. ‘Suzuki by Toyota Kenya’ sees Toyota picking compact cars from Suzuki’ catalogue to fill the big gap below the Corolla in the African country.

The cars have not been rebadged, as we expected them to be, but are being sold by the same dealer network as Toyota with some differentiating branding to set the cars apart. The Suzuki compact cars being sold through the Toyota Kenya network include:

Alto 800 - Kes 868,000 (~Rs 6.06 lakh)
Omni Cargo - Kes 925,000 (~Rs 6.46 lakh)
Gypsy - Kes 1,650,000 (~Rs 11.52 lakh)
Swift - Kes 1,600,000 (~Rs 11.17 lakh)
Jimny - Kes 2,700,000 (~Rs 18.84 lakh)
Ertiga - Price not announced
Ciaz - Kes 2,100,000 (~Rs 14.66 lakh)
Vitara - Kes 3,200,000 (~Rs 22.33 lakh)

Not all of these cars are being imported from Maruti’s plant in India, the list is limited to the Alto 800, Swift, Ciaz and Ertiga.

In India, the collaboration is set to spawn rebadged cars rather than the brands selling each other's cars through their respective dealerships. The first in that step will be the Baleno rebadged as a Toyota, expected to be launched sometime later in 2019. The first Suzuki badged Toyota, on the other hand, will be the Corolla Altis.