[JayPrashanth]

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Maruti Suzuki is expected to foray into the light commercial vehicle (LCV) market in the next couple of years with a mini pick up truck based on the Suzuki Carry platform. The car maker's board has green lighted the mini pick up truck project. Notably, the Suzuki Carry platform is used by the Maruti Eeco (Previously known as the Maruti Suzuki Versa) in India. This platform does host a pick up truck for South East Asian markets.



The Suzuki Carry badge made its debut in Japan over 5 decades ago. Ever since, the Carry platform has spawned 10 generations of mini pick up truck models (known as Kei trucks in Japan). With the Carry-based pick up truck, Maruti Suzuki will take aim at the best selling mini pick up truck in India, the Tata Ace. Maruti's Carry-based mini pick up truck will be sold with CNG (likely to be a petrol-CNG dual fuel motor) and turbo diesel engine options.

An interesting disclosure made by Mr R.C. Bhargava, the Chairman of Maruti Suzuki, is that the 1.3 liter Fiat Multijet turbo diesel engine is being adapted for use in the Carry-based mini pick up truck. Since the Carry is rear wheel driven, changes to the engine's mounting points will have to be made to support the rear wheel drive layout. Also, the Carry's petrol engine is situated under the front seats, another NVH and packaging challenge for Maruti Suzuki engineers working on the diesel mini pick up truck project.

Notably, the only other longitudinal (north-south) mounting of the 1.3 liter Fiat Multijet turbo diesel engine in a car sold in India involves the rear wheel driven Premier Rio compact SUV. The Multijet diesel motor is mounted transversely (east-west) in all other cars sold in India. On the Carry pick up, a lower state of tune for the diesel engine is likely with a focus on copious low end torque for load lugging applications.

Maruti Suzuki's Carry-based pick up will be aimed purely at the goods carrying segment as the car maker already has the Eeco on offer in guises such as passenger and panel van. It would be interesting to see whether Maruti Suzuki would shoehorn the Fiat Multijet engine into the Eeco (also based on the Carry platform) as well. This, considering the fact that the Multijet engine is being adapted to power the Carry mini pick up truck.

According to a report carried on the FinancialExpress, Maruti Suzuki is yet to take a call on the factory in which the Carry pick up truck would be produced. Also, the car maker is yet to decide on whether the pick up truck would be sold through existing Maruti dealerships or whether a new chain of commercial vehicle dealerships would be set up for the car maker's foray into the high growth LCV market in India.

Image courtesy WikiMedia

[advaitlele]

Isn't the same engine used in Chevrolet Enjoy in the RWD avatar?
Or does this involve the platform specific mounting and other specific changes?

BTW - is this move in the right direction for the Brand Maruti Suzuki? Do they really want to compete against the likes of Ape / Mahindra / Tata light trucks (Read : 1ton) category?

[i74js]

Its the need of time to stay put in all areas where one can compete. MSIL has a product line for small commercial usage then why not.

If the product is good, it will survive and bring home some additional cheer. The only thing that MSIL should keep in mind is to ensure if they plan to sell this product through dedicated setup (and not mix with their LMV dealers), they will have to ensure that the customer gets the same advantage of buying MSIL LMV in this segment too.

Also, M & M, Tata and Ashok Leyland are all seasoned players in this market, there should someing different in terms of offerings when MSIL comes to play in this segment.

[julupani]

1st of all, if this is to come with the FIAT Mjd engine, this SCV will not compete with the Tata Ace at all.

Its competitors will be the AL Dost, Tata Xenon/207 and Super Ace, M&M Genio and Bolero Pik-up/Maxi truck/Camper. This is the CV market of GVW 2-3.5tons. The Ace on the other hand sits in the sub 2-ton GVW segment, where it competes with the M&M Maxximo and APE trucks.

But I dont see why Maruti is looking to enter the SCV segment. The SCV segment is not exactly a high margin segment. And to garner large volumes against entrenched CV makers like ALL, TML and M&M will be a tough proposition. It will be next to impossible in my view. A few thousand units of the Carry is the best they can reasonably hope for in my view.

Also having to use FIAT's engine means royalty payments, which will eat into whatever small margins that exist.

Also from a brand image point of view, entering the SCV segment full on may not be a good thing for their passenger car business. Also if they are planning to have separate dealerships, they cant just stick with just this one vehicle. A few thousand units every month nationwide, cannot sustain a nation wide dealership network. To do that they will have to enter the entire gamut of LCV trucks upto 11/12ton GVW, so that dealers can manage enough volumes to keep themselves profitable.

[antlerroad]

What I think is Maruti Suzuki should bring the Suzuki Mega Carry pickup to India which has the potential to compete against the likes of Tata Super ACE, Mahindra Maxximo and especially Ashok Leyland Dost.

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by advaitlele

Isn't the same engine used in Chevrolet Enjoy in the RWD avatar? Or does this involve the platform specific mounting and other specific changes?
Do they really want to compete against the likes of Ape / Mahindra / Tata light trucks (Read : 1ton) category?

The Eeco has the engine located under the front passenger's seat so if they do use a diesel engine that is more noisy, they may have to consider mounting the engine in the rear without compromising on cargo space or consider using more sound-deadening material and just let the driver bear with the noise considering that it is a commercial transport vehicle.

The small commercial vehicle category may simply be to increase the utilization of their existing manufacturing plants. The Eeco sales aren't high enough so with part-sharing, they should be able to achieve economies of scale.

[fz_rider]

Maruti is developing its first in-house diesel engine – a two-cylinder, 800cc unit that will debut in the next-generation Suzuki ‘Carry’ light commercial vehicle (code: Y9T). This motor will be a significant step in the company’s engine development learning curve, and hence is being introduced in a commercial vehicle, where expectations of drivability and refinement are lower than those in the passenger car segment. But Maruti is focusing on delivering best-in-class fuel economy, performance and durability – the area that matters the most for commercial operations. Currently, the small LCV segment is dominated by the Tata Ace, Mahindra Maximo and Piaggio Ape.

When asked about employing the popular Multijet Fiat engine in this new LCV, Maruti Suzuki’s MD Kenichi Ayukawa said, “The Fiat engine will not fit in a small LCV and hence we needed to consider developing a brand new engine.”

Source : http://m.autocarindia.com/Article.as...9350&type=News

[kthrottle]

While coming to office today - got a glimpse of a highly camouflaged vehicle on Faridabad Gurgaon Raod. A proper LCV with four doors and a decent space at the back. Looks like they are targeting both passenger and goods carrying audience.

[Leymama]

Looks like its Polaris Eicher Quadricycle mule..

The rear view shown has similarity with the Polaris Ranger shown in defense exop2014

http://indianautosblog.com/2014/02/p...nned-rear-live

[kthrottle]

I second your thoughts, first these mules are doing rounds on faridabad Gurgaon Road from the past one week and there is no Polaris plant in NCR it is in Jaipur. Apart from that look at the tyres these are typical LCV kind of a setup.

With respect to the Polaris Eicher Quadricycle - they have no plans to introduce it - they are focusing on personal vehicles.

http://indianautosblog.com/2013/05/e...-in-2015-78273

[Leymama]

Polaris is having JV with Eicher, and Eicher is present in Gurgaon.
Since this JV is planning to make "Personal Vehicles" OR "Quadricycle", they cannot use UTV tyres on government roads, therefore have to use roadworthy tyres.

[FINTAIL]

A tweety bird tells me that ........

Recruitments for the commercial division of MSIL have already commenced.

General managers have been appointed in some (if not all) areas.

Cheers!

[1100D]

Originally Posted by Leymama

Looks like its Polaris Eicher Quadricycle mule..

The rear view shown has similarity with the Polaris Ranger shown in defense exop2014

http://indianautosblog.com/2014/02/p...nned-rear-live

Even the arrangement of the single wiper looks like a make-do arrangement, also note the A-pillar, doen't look like from a conventional truck. So even my guess would be Polaris.

[kthrottle]

Now after some googling, I agree with Leymama and 1100D. It looks like Polaris ranger crew with windsheild. Lets wait and watch.

http://www.utvblog.net/polaris/2009-...s-ranger-crew/

[rajeev k]

Maruti should have entered the Mini LCV segment quite earlier with an Omni based one, which is so common in the neighboring Pakistan. (Suzuki Ravi see picture courtesy Pakwheels.com) But, perhaps, the thought of losing Omni's market share as a personal family car initially and as a taxi cab / people mover subsequently would have worked against it. And the absence of a sub 1000 cc Diesel Engine would also have worked against it. Otherwise we would have seen an Ace rival much earlier.