Maruti drives in Baleno to increase hold over premium hatchback segment

The Baleno and Swift together have given 60% market share to the company in the premium hatchback segment

The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday launched the all new version of its premium hatchback Baleno- in a renewed push to maintain its leadership position in the premium hatchback segment.

The Baleno has been one of the most popular models from the Maruti stable and together with the Swift has given 60 per cent market share to the company in the premium hatchback segment.

The new Baleno has a new K 12 engine and design tweaks, but the most dramatic addition is that of internet features, including a customisable advanced voice assist feature, as well as remote access, tracking, geo-fencing, trip analysis facilities as well as a hydraulic clutch. It has also been given six airbags in most of its variants.

With prices ranging between Rs 6.35-9.49 lakh, the new Baleno undercuts most of its rivals, including the Hyundai i20, Honda Jazz, Toyota Glanza and Volkswagen Polo.

The new Baleno already has more than 25,000 bookings, according to Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director, marketing and sales and deliveries have already started.

“We were getting feedback from consumers that we should have more tech features in the Baleno. The aspirations level has changed for consumers and we have to respond to that,” he said.

While the SUV segment has grown, the premium hatchback segment has thwarted this assault from the rise in popularity of the SUV vehicles. From FY17 to now, the sales share of premium hatchbacks has remained in the range of 22-24 per cent of the overall passenger vehicle sales. This, despite the fact that from 2016 to 2021, as many as 10 all-new sub-4 metre SUVs arrived in the market, and only one all-new premium hatchback (Altroz).

“While SUV segment’s share has grown it has grown at the expense of the sedans. The premium hatchback segment has actually grown in size than what it was five or six years back,” said Srivastava.

CV Raman, Chief Technical Officer (Engineering) said that while the weight of the new Baleno has increased due to changes in design. “We have tried to maintain the same aerodynamic reducing friction loss. These kinds of things have brought competitiveness to the vehicle. We wanted to bring more technology and safety features to the segment,” he said.