Indian A-Star is Suzuki's new Alto for the world

News of the fifth generation Suzuki Alto is out, and surprise, it is naught but the A-Star, designed by Maruti Suzuki and seen in its concept form earlier this year at the Auto Expo in Delhi. The car is scheduled for launch in Europe and India in October 2008, and we expect it to fortify Maruti Suzuki's dominance of the small car space in India even further, besides putting plush minis like the Hyundai i10 squarely in its gunsight.

There is an interesting Indian connection to the story apart from the design as well. The new car will be made exclusively in India for export to the rest of the world. Nissan's strong interest in the project has already reaped its benefits - a deal with Maruti is in place under which the Indian company will make 50,000 units of this car, which will be sold badged as a Nissan in its international markets.

What will it run on?

The new Alto will sport a spanking new 1-litre, all aluminum three-cylinder power plant. The new engine will make about 60PS of power, and its light structure will make it more frugal and also much cleaner to adhere to international standards. Sources are not ruling out another version of the car with a 1.2-litre engine (soon to be seen in the Suzuki Splash), which will give it even more firepower against the similarly powered Hyundai i10 Kappa.