Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) on Saturday not only reduced the prices of its auto gear shift (AGS) cars across all models by ₹5,000 but is also launching a ‘Dream Edition’ of its small cars – Alto K10, S-Presso and Celerio -- priced at ₹4.99 lakh (ex-showroom), to gain some traction in this segment.
A senior official said this special edition will be launched in the next few days, and MSIL will offer it for a limited period, said a senior official.
The mini segment (Alto K10 and S-Presso) sales declined by 19 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 9,902 units in May this year, as compared with 12,236 units in May 2023. The compact segment (like Celerio,WagonR, Baleno and Swift) too declined by 4.50 per cent YoY to 68,206 units last month against 71,419 units in the same month last year.
“One of the reasons why these segments are not growing is that the vehicles costs have gone up because of new regulations, which have been mandated by law of the land. At the same time, over the last three-four years, after the Covid, generally the monthly household income has not gone up, so buying capacity of the customers has reduced,” Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, MSIL, said.
That is why the company has devised a two-pronged strategy – one is to rationalise the prices of AGS variants in all models -- and the other is the ‘Dream Edition’ where MSIL will offer reverse parking sensors, a camera, an infotainment system, and many more features at the same price.
Through these offers and limited edition, the company is expecting some incremental sales in the mini segment, Banerjee added.
Currently, the Alto K10 is priced between Rs.3.99 lakh and Rs.5.96 lakh; S-Presso has a price range of ₹4.27 lakh to ₹6.12 lakh; and Celerio is priced at ₹5.37 to ₹7.10 lakh (all ex-showroom, Delhi).