There has been a lot of hype related to the release of Maruti Ciaz, which is a mid-size premium sedan from the Indian automobile leader, Maruti Suzuki. Now the brand wants to take the competition to the next level and it has targeted to sell nearly 60000 to 70000 models in the nation.
Ram Suresh Akella, Commercial Business Head of the Southern Region declared, "The initial plan was to sell about 60,000 to 70,000 units in the country. About 10,000 customers have already made their bookings of which 60 per cent are for diesel cars and 40 per cent for petrol vehicles." Approximately, nine per cent of the total sales would be taking place from Kerala, where it was launched recently. Ciaz is among the longest and widest sedan in its category and is expected to make a great impression in the market. It has been built entirely on a brand new auto mobile platform. There has been a total investment of nearly 620 cro res INR by the company and its vendors for the development of this model.
The first half of the new fiscal has been going great for Maruti, which witnessed an overall growth of 44.7 per cent. The entire industry showed a single figure growth during this period, which shows how successful Maruti has been even in the testing times. One of the major reasons why Maruti has been so successful is because if the rural impact. The company has been focussing on the rural and semirural markets since the past six years and it is reaping the benefit of this factor. Five years ago, the total share of the rural market in sales was nearly five per cent. On the other hand, the share of the rural market sales now account for 34 per cent, which was 32 per cent last years. This has been one of the key points of success for Maruti.
With the release of the Ciaz, it is expected that the sales figures will further shoot up. The car comes in petrol as well as diesel variants and the customers can choose according to their liking. While the petrol variant has been tagged at 7.40 lakhs to 9.03 lakhs INR, the diesel models have been priced between 8.47 lakhs to 10.26 lakhs INR. All these prices however, reflect the ex-showroom value and the on-road tags might depend on the state of purchase.
