Suzuki's Ecocar candidate reveals that cheap cars can look good and also be clean

ECOCAR UPDATE

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Suzuki's Ecocar candidate reveals that cheap cars can look good and also be clean

These are the first official pictures of Suzuki's Concept A-Star that will be shown for the first time at the New Delhi motor show next month.

As its badge suggests, the A-Star is previewing Suzuki's all-new A-segment car that will be built in India, and there is a strong chance that it could also form the basis of the brand's intended Ecocar project in Thailand.

The new five-door hatchback is designed to sit under the Swift B-segment car. The Splash hatch, which made its world debut at the Frankfurt motor show last September, sits in between the as yet to be named A-car and Swift.

Suzuki claims that the A-car focuses on "world-class environmental capability and comfort" and adds that it will have an all-new Euro 5-compliant 1.0-litre petrol engine with CO2 emissions of no more than 109g/km.

A new diesel engine is claimed to be under development. Suzuki hasn't revealed any details about this oil-burning motor, but sources believe it will displace 1.1 litres and not the current 1.3-litre which is still inferior to the 1.0-litre petrol counterpart in terms of emissions.

Such statistics automatically make the A-car eligible for Ecocar rules, and Suzuki has already received approval from Thailand's Board of Investment along with Honda and Nissan. The other remaining candidates are Toyota, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Tata.

Sources told Motoring that there is a high possibility that India and Thailand will become two important production bases for small cars as both countries can swap parts under their free-trade agreement. Tata is also known to be keen on using this strategy.

Although production of Suzuki's A-car starts in October next year, it will still be at least a year away before the Ecocar version hits production lines in a new facility in Rayong.

Although General Motors co-develops several models with Suzuki, it is still not clear yet whether GM Thailand would cooperate with Suzuki Automobiles Thailand in the Ecocar project for a Chevrolet-badged version.

The Splash and Agilia from Opel, GM's European offshoot, are co-developed. Some analysts are predicting that Chevrolet's new A-car - most likely to be based on the Beat that emerged as the market's favourite choice from three concept cars shown in New York earlier this year - could share its DNA with Suzuki's A-car.

Another possible spin-off from this A-car is a Nissan badged model. Suzuki already has a contract to build 50,000-units at its India plant, badged as Nissan, to Europe.

In Thailand, Nissan could do with a fresh new budget model positioned below the Tiida B-car and a rebadged Suzuki could just be the solution.

Nissan has a much stronger presence in Thailand and could, therefore, be a better proposition than a Suzuki model. Naturally, the Suzuki donor car should be locally available but positioned to a more focused group of buyers.

OEM deal is nothing new and is born out necessity to create a sustainable - and profitable - economy of scale. Take, for instance, the Toyota-PSA joint-venture in Europe that made the triple offerings of Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 possible.

In Japan, Suzuki has been rebadging its microcars to become Nissan and, likewise, Nissan rebadges its MPV's for Suzuki. In the USA, Nissan will be building the Frontier-Navara pick-up rebadged as the Suzuki Equator.

In another development, Honda is reportedly set to launch two all-new small cars by 2010 in Thailand, apart from the all-new Jazz and City B-cars due next year in the first and third quarters respectively.

The Ecocar contender will be an all-new A-segment global model that has yet to be seen in metal anywhere. Apart from Thailand, there will be other production sites elsewhere strategically located to serve different corners of the world market via an integrated production network.

The other small car, most likely to be positioned between Ecocar and Honda's B-cars, will come from Indonesia as a compact seven-seat mini-MPV similar to Toyota's Avanza. It will come to Thai shores using Afta trade benefits.

Pundits expect the Jazz and City to use a 1.5-litre petrol engine, the Indonesian-made model 1.3-litre and Ecocar 1.0-litre - all with E20-compatibility.