Maruti Alto may be a cheaper model in MSIL’s stable in India but in China the car is being sold nearly Rupees one lakh higher than in India. “We are even better than China in terms of realisation and operational efficiencies, and the Alto is priced lower here than in China,” said Shinzo Nakanishi, MD and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India. “Maruti is Suzuki’s most efficient entity, making cheaper cars but offering higher profits to the parent company,” he added. However, he did not reveal details of profit margins for either of the two countries.
Suzuki Alto is available at Rs. 3.2 lakh to Rs. 3.96 lakh in China while it is priced at Rs. 2.4-2.8 lakh in India. Suzuki introduced two new models of Alto last month in the Chinese market. The new variant Alto Cool comes with manual transmission priced at Rs. 3.6 lakh while Alto Automatic is priced at Rs. 4.43 lakh.
Maruti enjoys nearly 50 percent market share in India with its wide variety of compact cars in its product portfolio. It sells more than 870,000 units annually while in China it sells less than 250,000 units annually. It also trails in Chinese market as compared to other car makers like Toyota, Nissan and Honda which are the leading players in China.
