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      Maruti Suzuki steps up the pace of production in the SUV segment

      CarTrade Editorial Team

      CarTrade Editorial Team

      The dominance of Maruti Suzuki in the Indian passenger car market is unparalleled. However, a major part of the auto maker's share in the market is formed by the hatchback segment, which includes cars like Alto 800, Swift, A-Star and Ritz. This, automatically, suggests that the company has little influence of the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) segment. In the recent past, the segment has been on a rise in India with compact SUVs, in particular, achieving great success. Maruti Suzuki, seeing this rise, has decided to step up and take advantage of the growing demand of SUVs.

      Maruti Suzuki steps up the pace of production in the SUV segment
      Maruti Suzuki steps up the pace of production in the SUV segment

      In a recent interview, Mayank Pareek, the Chief Operation Officer for Marketing and Sales at Maruti Suzuki, spoke at length about the kind of share the firm is looking at achieving in the SUV segment. “I am always asking the engineering guys to quicken their work on SUVs, it is the need of the hour. I expect to see a 3-4% jump in our market share once we roll out our SUVs. Its among the fastest growing sectors today and accounts for about 21 per cent of car sales and we are not present there, so we are losing out,” he was quoted as saying.

      Industry experts also feel that Maruti Suzuki is losing out on a lot by not having a presence in the SUV segment. It is believed that the kind of brand image the company holds is good enough to attract a high number of customers without putting in much of an effort. Also, the strong dealership network of Maruti Suzuki has the capability of popularising any vehicle across the country. Puneet Gupta, Principal analyst at IHS Automotive, elaborated on the same. He said, “I think not having SUVs is a big hole in Maruti’s range, and that market is growing very fast. Gaining market share is a big effort for any car maker. If you lose market share its very difficult to come back. One has to work three fronts, products, price and positioning. Maruti has worked on all three, they are bringing their best global products at a competitive price.”

      Currently, the Indian portfolio of Maruti Suzuki consists of mostly compact cars, something that it would like to change. India's largest passenger car maker is looking at launching around 2-3 new utility vehicles over the next few years. According to reports, two SUVs are almost certain to arrive in Indian showroom in coming times. One of them is expected to an XA-Alpha based compact SUV, which is going to compete with the likes of Ford EcoSport, Renault Duster and upcoming Nissan Terrano. Industry experts feel that Maruti Suzuki's entry in the compact SUV segment is going to make the rivalry quite intense. This can be foreseen as Hyundai and Volkswagen are also planning to launch their cars in the segment. The other SUV is expected to be the based on the Suzuki iV-4, which will be showcased as a concept vehicle at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this year.

      Maruti Suzuki