Toyota Motor has begun manufacturing hybrid RAV4 SUVs for sale in Europe under the Suzuki Motor badge, according to local reports citing sources close to the matter. 

Toyota Industries Corporation, which has Toyota Motor, Denso and Toyota Tsusho among its largest shareholders, began producing the Suzuki versions earlier this month at its plant in Aichi Prefecture where the Toyota RAV4 is made.

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Suzuki is understood to be planning to start sales of the rebadged RAV4s in Europe in the second half of 2020 and hopes it will help lift sales.

According to GlobalData’s Automotive Intelligence Centre, the Suzuki model will be called ACross.

Overall passenger vehicle registrations in Europe fell by over 42% to 3.6m units in the first five months of 2020.

Emissions regulations in Europe are getting stricter and governments in the region are increasingly targeting low- and zero-emissions vehicles for sales incentives to help the industry recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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Suzuki is understood to have also agreed to sell Toyota’s hybrid Corolla Wagon [aka Touring Sport] in Europe, likely from later this year or early next year.

Rebadging models for other automakers ‘on an OEM basis’ is common amongst Japanese automakers. Suzuki has in the past built rebadged variants of its Vitara SUV in Japan for Mazda to sell on the local market while, in Europe, Suzuki’s Hungarian plant built versions of the Swift for Subaru to sell under the Justy nameplate.

In March 2019, Toyota and Suzuki announced a plan to collaborate on the production of compact cars and electric/hybrid vehicles to help improve sales and economies of scale.

Last August the two automakers agreed on a capital tie in which Toyota would take a 4.94% stake in Suzuki at a cost of JPY96bn (US$899m) with Suzuki investing JPY48bn in Toyota stock.