Maruti Suzuki India has been spied testing the new Suzuki Solio in India, which was expected to spawn into a 7 seater WagonR MPV. The 7 seater WagonR, which was showcased as a concept a few years ago, was to be based on the next generation WagonR platform, which also is under testing as of today.
Similar in stance to the Suzuki Solio which has been launched in Japanese markets, the 7 seater WagonR is built on a lightweight Heartect platform that also underpins the Swift, DZire and Baleno besides the soon to be launched next generation Ertiga.
This Heartect platform, which is composed of high tensile steel, will result in better safety and performance, while the vehicle will also be light in weight ensuring better fuel efficiency and driveability.
Thanks to regular spy shots of the car being tested in India, it was believed that the car was heading for a launch here. Where it will be positioned between Eeco and Ertiga in the Maruti Suzuki lineup, as a more premium and safer option for customers. But, that seems not to be happening, atleast for near future.
As per a report, Maruti Suzuki’s Senior Executive Director (Engineering), Mr C V Raman has stated this – “We study the MPV segments, and it is actually shrinking…volumes are too low. And if people need practicality of 7 seats in budget, we offer this already with Omni and Eeco. And we have Ertiga also which offers VFM. So products are already available.”
This statement more or less confirms that the WagonR 7 seater is not going to be launched in India, in the near future (and definitely not by Diwali 2018, as was reported earlier). It might happen at a later stage, once the Eeco and Omni are discontinued, and Maruti has a void in that segment.
Eeco and Omni together generate about 15,000 units sales for Maruti Suzuki every month. With Eeco and Omni not meeting Bharat NCAP safety norms, in its current form, they are going to be discontinued from the company line-up by 1st October 2019.
Post this, Maruti could launch the WagonR 7 seater MPV here, as a replacement to their Omni and Eeco models. This will help the company to continue offering a 7 seater replacement model to Omni and Eeco buyers, which will be much safer, and feature airbags, ABS, etc.
