Toyota Glanza Spotted For The First Time

Toyota is all set to bring in the Glanza hatchback to India. Essentially a Toyota-badged version of the Maruti Suzuki Baleno, the new Toyota Glanza is the first model to come out as part of the Toyota – Suzuki alliance which was announced in 2017. While a teaser has already been released, the Glanza has not been seen in the flesh in its entirety, well until now.

The Glanza hatchback was spotted in a car park and yes, this is the first time you get to see what it really looks like, up front and the rear. Up front, you see it get a a new grille and slightly tweaked face, in order to differentiate it from the Baleno. So, we can see the two chrome slates which gets the Toyota badge right in the centre of the car. Much of the rest of the details on the car remain the same as on the Baleno. So the chrome strip, the headlamps, the fog lamps and even the lower air dam, remains identical to the Baleno.

The similarity continues at the rear as there are no changes apart from the variant and brand badging. The Toyota Glanza will compete with the likes of the Maruti Suzuki Baleno, Hyundai i20, Honda Jazz. Considering that Maruti Suzuki has had great success with the Baleno and manages to sell close to 18,000 units a month on an average, it will be interesting to see how Toyota manages to boost its sales figures with this car.

While the cabin of the car too is likely to remain unchanged, there will be a few tweaks made to make it feel more like a Toyota. As far as engine options go, the Toyota Glanza is expected to be launched in two petrol options, which will include Maruti Suzuki’s 1.2-litre, four-cylinder K12 petrol engine which powers the Baleno. The other one could be Toyota’s 1.2-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that is tuned to make 79 bhp and 104 Nm torque.

The Toyota and Suzuki partnership extends not only to sharing vehicles but also technological development, vehicles production and market development. An MoU signed in November 2017 further expanded the partnership to consider a cooperative structure for introducing battery-powered electric vehicles.