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| Maruti Suzuki looks to beat SIAM auto industry growth projection... |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata May 21, 2009, 00:51 IST |
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Maruti Suzuki India Ltd(MSIL) is confident of clocking a higher growth this fiscal than projected by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) for the industry this year.
SIAM projected that the passenger car segment would grow by 3-5 per cent during 2009-10. Banking on its latest launch, the Ritz, that is positioned in the fast growing upper A2 segment, MSIL hopes to do better than the industry average. "We will be doing better than what SIAM has projected", said Shuji Oishi, director, marketing and sales, at the launch of the Ritz in Kolkata. He, however, admitted that a double digit growth was not achievable this year. MSIL is targeting one million car production by 2010-11. "While it all depends on the market situation, given the current trend we can achieve this if we consider exports and domestic sales together", Oishi said.
Maruti had grown by 1.5 per cent across categories in 2008-09 to 7,21,291 cars sold in the domestic market. Its exports were up 32 per cent to 70,000 during the same period. This year the company targets to export 1 lakh units mainly on the back of the hatchback A-Star that sells under the Alto brand in Europe.
The company is bullish on growth in the A2 segment that comprises nearly 72 per cent of the total passenger car industry in the country. "Around 74,000 units are sold every month in the segment", said S N Burman, commercial business head of the East Zone for Maruti. MSIL clocked a four per cent growth in the segment last fiscal and is the market leader with a nearly 60 per cent share.
The Ritz falls in the upper A2 segment which is around 17 per cent of the net size of the entire segment. Other cars from Maruti's stable in the A2 segment are the A-Star launched in November last year apart from the Alto, Wagon-R, Zen and Swift. The Swift sells around 8,800 units per month on an average, while the Wagon R sells around 11,000 units while the Alto tops the list with 18,000 units per month.
Besides, the company is also working on upgrading the Maruti-800 and the Omni to Bharat Stage 4 emission norms. "We are not yet phasing out the cars and are working on possible technical upgrades and modifications.
This would obviously impact the pricing of the cars, and it would eventually be a marketing decision whether to launch it. We will take a call on that before 2011", Oishi informed ruling out at the same time that the company could retain the old verions in tier-2 cities apart from the 11 major cities where the BS-4 emission norms will become mandatory.
...launches Ritz in Orissa
Maruti Suzuki India Limited, the passenger car leader in the domestic market, launched its new model Ritz in the Orissa market on Tuesday. The latest passenger car model from the Maruti stable having both petrol and diesel variants was rolled out simultaneously in Berhampur, Rourkela and Sambalpur.
Officials of Maruti Suzuki expect a good response to Ritz from the customers in Orissa on account of the cost effectiveness and fuel efficient features of the car model. “The heart of the Ritz is the brand new 1.2 litre K12M petrol engine and 1.3 DDiS diesel power-plant, each offering optimum performance and fuel efficiency. This apart, the transmission system has been optimized for the Ritz to match the Indian driving habits”, said Rohit Kohli, area manager (Orissa) of Maruti Suzuki.
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