Will regain 50% market share by fiscal-end: Maruti

The country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), today said it will regain an over 50 per cent share of the domestic passenger car market by the end of this fiscal.

"By the end of this fiscal, we will again control over 50 per cent of the domestic passenger car market. In fact, that is our aim," Maruti Suzuki Managing Director Shinzo Nakanishi told reporters here.

Maruti Suzuki is gearing up to launch five vehicles -- Alto, Estilo, WagonR, Eeco and SX4 -- in CNG variants in a single day this week. The company is pinning its hopes on the slew of alternate fuel vehicles to drive up volumes.

"With the launch of five new CNG cars, we hopefully will increase our market share to over 50 per cent," he added.

The market share of MSI is hovering below the 50 per cent mark, despite the firm posting its best-ever monthly domestic sales in July.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the market leader sold 2,82,488 cars during the April-July period, representing a 47.68 per cent share in the overall 5,92,405 units market.

In the comparable year-ago period, MSI had a 53.13 per cent share in the 4,40,069 units car market, with sales of 2,33,811 units.

This is the first fiscal in which MSI's market share fell below 50 per cent. The company's loss is mainly due to Tata Motors, Ford India and General Motors India catching up following a good response to their respective small cars -- Nano, Figo and Beat.

According to SIAM data, MSI's main rival Hyundai Motor India's market share in the car segment also declined to 18.88 per cent in April-July from 20.89 per cent in the comparable period last year.

Tata Motors, whose sales of the Nano picked up after the opening of its Sanand plant, enhanced its market share to 14.72 per cent, with 87,202 units sold. It had a market share of 11.89 per cent in the same period last year.

Likewise, small car Figo drove Ford India's share of the domestic car market past the 5 per cent mark for the first time, with sales of 30,578 units. It had a mere 1.71 per cent share in the same period last fiscal.

General Motors India also increased its market share to 4.87 per cent, selling a total of 28,846 units, mainly on the back of its latest hatchback, Beat. It had a 3.31 per cent market share in the corresponding period of 2009.