Maruti aims big in A3 plus segment with Ciaz

Maruti Suzuki India is aiming big with Ciaz in the A3 plus segment which replaces SX4 sedan.

"We had done extremely good in A3 minus segment with Swift and Dzire and we want to do the same in the A3 plus segment with Ciaz," Maruti Executive Director (marketing and sales) R S Kalsi said at the launch of the new mid-sized sedan in the city last evening.

The current market in A3 plus segment is about 1.25 lakh units out of 5 lakh in entire A3 segment, which is 20% of the 25 lakh car market, he said.

Ciaz, he said, is expected to help A3 plus segment to expand.

Maruti announced 10,000 pre-bookings for Ciaz of which 60% was for diesel models.

Ciaz is being produced in Maruti's Manesar plant and is aiming at a business of 60,000-80,000 cars in the first year.

Kalsi said he was also banking on the 1.5 million customers of Swift and Dzire upgrading to Ciaz.

Maruti Executive Director (sales and marketing) T Hashimoto confirmed the company had stopped SX4 production that was launched about seven years ago and Ciaz is an improved product to compete in the market.