Maruti Suzuki on Friday unveiled a new car, Ignis, to be sold exclusively on its Nexa platform. The car, which starts at ₹4.59 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the petrol variant and at ₹6.39 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the diesel variant, has been described by the company as a “premium urban compact vehicle”.
Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Maruti Suzuki, said the company expected Ignis to help the company ramp up its presence in the premium compact segment.
Currently, only two cars are sold under the Nexa brand — Baleno and S-Cross.
“If we have to keep pace, we must demolish traditional categories and think afresh — just like the customer is thinking,” Ayukawa was quoted in a press release.
The company said it had invested over ₹950 crore in the development of the new car, adding that “Ignis comes with 98.5 per cent localisation”.
Ignis, which will have automatic options in both petrol as well as diesel variants, is likely to take on some new entrants, such as the small hatchback, Kwid, from Renault’s stable, as well as Mahindra and Mahindra’s KUV100.
Ayukawa also announced at the launch event that Maruti’s parent company — Suzuki Motor Corp — will launch 20 new models in the medium term, of which, at least 15 will hit India by 2020. The company has launched four new models in 36 months — Baleno, Ciaz, S-Cross and Vitara Brezza.
The company’s highly anticipated hybrid Swift is expected to come to India by the end of this year.
Ignis will come in six petrol variants — all powered by 1.2 litre VVT engine. Of these, the manual variants will be priced between ₹4.59 lakh and ₹6.69 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The two automatic petrol options will come with price tags of ₹5.74 lakh and ₹6.3 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
The three manual diesel variants will be priced in the bracket of ₹6.39 lakh and ₹7.8 lakh (ex-showroom), while the automatic variants will cost ₹6.94 lakh and ₹7.46 lakh (ex-showroom).