Ertiga helps Maruti Suzuki to acquire second place in Indias Utility Vehicle market

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), the country's largest passenger car marker, is on its way to conquer a new territory - Utility Vehicle (UV) market, as the sales of its Ertiga model overcame those of Toyota's Innova during September-October 2012. Both Ertiga and Innova are Multi Utility Vehicles (MUV) and have been involved in an intense face off against each other for quite some time now.

Ertiga helps Maruti Suzuki to acquire second place in India’s Utility Vehicle

At present, the title of undisputed leader of Indian UV market stays with the automobile giant – Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) Limited, who have been breaking sales barriers and expanding their international presence at a breathtaking pace. The second position had been occupied by Indian arm of Toyota for a significant amount of time, but its foundations were shaken when Maruti Suzuki introduced its Ertiga MUV on domestic turf in April 2012. The Innova ruled the Indian auto market with no real competition for many years but since the entry of Ertiga, fortunes of Toyota MUV kept hitting one low after another.

Interestingly, the Japanese auto giant Toyota is still far ahead of MSIL in terms of total Innova MUV sales that were registered between the first seven months of ongoing financial year 2012-13. However, it is only a matter of time when MSIL pips Toyota for second spot at biggest UV maker in the country and who knows the country's largest car maker may also start tracking M&M in the near future.

Reportedly, Maruti Suzuki witnessed wholesale numbers of 7,400 UV units during October 2012, as compared to sales of Toyota Innova that stood at 7,291 units during the same month. Further, between the first seven months of ongoing fiscal 2012-13 (April to October period) Toyota's total UV sales stood at 54,241 units, while Maruti Suzuki could manage only 47,766 units in the same period. Evidently, fuelled by the immense demand of Ertiga MUV, Maruti Suzuki's UV market share jumped up by more than seven folds at 15.4 per cent this year, as against 2.4 per cent in 2011. Accordingly, Toyota's market share witnessed a slight slack as well and dropped from 18 per cent last year to 17.5 per cent in the ongoing 2012-13 financial year.

The country's favourite UV maker, M&M’s market share also dropped to 47.5 per cent this year, as compared to 56.6 per cent recorded last year, because of the rampant emergence of Maruti Suzuki Ertiga MUV and Renault Duster compact SUV.