Maruti Suzuki bets big on A2 car segment

Maruti Suzuki, the market leader in the passenger car market in India is betting big on the A2 segment which is the biggest contributor to the overall passenger car sales in the country.

Passenger car sales in the country grew 25.1 per cent in the country in 2009-10 at 15.26 lakh units, the second largest in the world after China which posted a 42 per cent growth in this segment in the same period.

The A2 segment accounted for 67 per cent of the overall passenger car sales in the country. Maruti which has about 60 per cent share in this segment intends to step up this share further through the roll out of new models as well as coming out with upgraded versions of its existing models.

“We aim to increase our market share further in the A2 segment and are confident of posting a higher growth than the industry average in this fiscal. Wagon R is the best selling car in the A2 segment and with the launch of the new Wagon R, we expect to have an even greater share of the market in this segment”, Jatinder S Dhindsa, regional manager (east) of Maruti Suzuki India Limited told reporters here after the launch of the new Maruti Wagon R in the city. Maruti has sold more than 80,000 units of Wagon R in the past six years in West Bengal and Orissa out of which around 40,000 units have been sold in 2009-10, he said.

On a pan-India basis, the auto giant has so far sold over 8.8 lakh units of Wagon R.

The new WagonR which is available in three segments- Lx, Lxi and Vxi is priced at Rs 3.4 lakh, Rs 3.7 lakh and Rs 3.93 lakh respectively (ex-showroom Bhubaneswar).

The new WagonR which is Euro-IV compliant gives an improved mileage of 18.9 km per litre and is equipped with safety features like dual airbags, anti-lock braking system (ABS) and intelligent computerized anti-theft system.