Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) said on Thursday that it is aware of its market share falling and to fix that it will introduce new and right products to achieve its goals.
The company’s overall market share in the Indian passenger vehicle market had come down to 43.4 per cent in FY22 from nearly 50 per cent earlier, mainly due to shrinking sales of small cars.
SUV market presence
Speaking on the sidelines of the new Brezza launch, Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, MSIL, said, for instance, the overall sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment now accounts for 40 per cent of the Indian passenger vehicle market and Maruti Suzuki’s presence in the segment is not good enough.
“We realise that, so we are fixing this. That’s why we are going to introduce some new products into this segment (SUV)...we don’t give any specific numbers, but obviously, in order to achieve our goal, we have to have the right product in all segments and we have to get some market share in all segments, and that is what we are going to,” he said.
In certain segments, the company said it is still number one with high margins. For instance, in the compact SUV segment, it is at the top with 20 per cent, and in the non-SUV segments it has an all-time high market share of 67 per cent last year.
All-new Brezza
The company launched the all-new Brezza, priced at ₹8 lakh to ₹13.96 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi). While the manual versions are priced between ₹8 lakh and ₹12.46 lakh, the automatic variants start at ₹10.97 lakh to ₹13.96 lakh (all ex-showroom prices, New Delhi). It competes with the likes of the Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Tata Nexon, and Mahindra XUV300.
“Conceptualised, designed and developed in India, the Brezza, with its stylish design, bold stance and unmistakable road presence, has redefined the compact SUV segment in India. The most loved compact SUV, the Brezza, with over 7,50,000 delighted customers, has ruled the sales charts by consistently being among the top 10 best-selling passenger vehicles,” Takeuchi said.
Safety features
Built on Suzuki’s signature TECT platform, the new Brezza uses high tensile steel, offering more torsional rigidity and improved handling, leading to enhanced overall vehicle safety, the company said.
It offers six airbags, electronic stability programme (ESP) with hill hold assist as standard across all variants, and 20+ safety features such as reverse parking sensors, high-speed alert system, and Isofix child seat restraint system.
Also, for the first time, MSIL is offering its smart hybrid technology in all the trims of the Brezza — both in manual and automatic variants.
MSIL said it has received 45,000 bookings already, and the company has a capacity to produce 10,000 units a month, thereby resulting in a waiting period for the model.