Will the Alto Eco make its India debut?
The current Alto has been around for more than a decade now, and even though an upgraded K10 version was launched a few months back, it seems no match for the newly launched Eon. A new Suzuki hatchback, badged as an Alto was snapped by a Team-BHP member near the company’s manufacturing unit. The car in no way looked like a test mule and even had a registered licence plate.
The car snapped is the Alto Eco which is available in Japan and recently has made a record by achieving a mileage of 32 kmpl.
It was being driven by a young couple which means it definitely wasn’t a test drive vehicle. The front of the car was similar to the A-Star; sold as the Alto in the international market and that shows where the Alto badging comes from.
The rear and the side profile of the car were however, completely different from the current A-Star, which seems to be the reason behind the confusion. The car looks much bigger than the current variant too, which means that this could be Maruti’s answer to the Eon. The car looks like a typical Suzuki and looked similar to the new WagonR from the back. The car spotted is currently available in the Japanese market as the Alto, and that’s why the car even had a few Japanese stickers around the windscreen.
Maruti has always had a great positioning strategy,and there are speculations that this could be an all new product positioned between the Alto and the A-Star. Maruti is also launching a new 800 at the upcoming Auto Expo, which shows that the brand is trying very hard to hold on to the hatchback throne it currently holds. Expect the confusion to be cleared at the upcoming Auto Expo, as that’s the time when most of the companies will be launching new cars and variants.
Image Source: TeamBHP