Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), the country's largest passenger car maker, has announced its intentions to introduce a replacement model of its iconic Maruti Suzuki 800 in the festival season of 2012. It is believed that the upcoming model from the stables of MSIL will be marketed as Alto 800. Since the company's announcement, immense speculations have been revolving around the model regarding an attempt to pose some stiff competition against the 'World's cheapest car', Tata Nano.
Alto 800, which is expected to be priced less than the current edition Alto, is speculated to hold a K10 engine within sub-Rs. 2 lacs price segment. Its aggressive pricing will help the model to efficiently square off against the likes of Tata Nano's top-end variant LX, which will surely put Tata Motors in an uncomfortable position.
Although Tata Motors is regularly citing its iconic model to be extremely safe and durable, the small car failed to convince the buyers largely due its fire catching incidents. However with immense research and development, the company was able to heal the sentiments of Indian buyers and eventually sales of the model witnessed an upward swing.
Despite being expensive than Nano, with its K10 engine, Alto continues to be the largest selling car of the country and has been the company's flag bearer in this respect. The main reason cited behind the brilliant sales of Alto was the incorporation of K-series engine, which has at par performance.
The 2012 Alto 800 is expected to have spacious cabin than the Nano and will be based on a 'Tall boy' design.It is believed that the upcoming Alto 800 will feature a new 796 cc, three-cylinder F8D petrol engine, which will churn out a higher power output than the engine packed within the current model Alto.
It would be interesting to see that how the Indian audiences react to MSIL's new offering Alto 800, which is slated to fill the void by emerging as the country's first 'People Car after Maruti Suzuki 800. Also, the current entry-level car market is pretty competitive with many global auto players eyeing the market leadership. MSIL and Tata Motors continue to be Indian powerhouses and a direct face-off between them will be a thing to watch out for.
In anticipation of the upcoming cat-mouse chase, Tata Motors has announced its plans to launch a CNG model of its Nano along with the diesel version as well; however, the production is still far away off.
