Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) expects that in the coming years, 30-40 per cent of its small scar sales will be of automatic gear shift (AGS) versions.
Gearing itself to meet the challenge, the country’s largest passenger carmaker is in the process of setting up an AGS manufacturing plant at Manesar, Haryana, some time next year.
“There will be an increase in demand for such cars in the future, which are also price-competitive.
“Therefore, we would also launch more small cars with AGS variants,” Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and Chief Executive, MSIL, said.
The company has a joint venture with Italian parts maker Magneti Marelli, which imports critical components from Italy and Japan for the AGS and are assembled here.
Meanwhile, the company on Monday launched the new Alto K10, including an AGS version.
The whole range – available in Lx, Lxi and Vxi – are priced between ₹3.06 lakh and ₹3.81 lakh (all ex-showroom, Delhi).
The top-end of the Vxi model (in geared shifts) is also available with a driver seat airbag and front fog lamps, priced at ₹3.56 lakh, while the Lxi model has an option of CNG version priced at ₹3.81 lakh.
In addition to a new look, the car has a fuel efficiency of 24.07 km a litre, around 15 per cent higher than the previous version, and the CNG version would give around 32.26 km per kg (under test conditions).
MSIL, which stopped production of the older Alto K10 in September, said the new car would help the company realise 10 per cent incremental sales of the model.
According to company estimates, the newly launched AGS variant of the car would account for around 20 per cent of the total Alto K10 sales, Ayukawa said.
Celerio hatchback While the Celerio was the only hatchback available in the AGS option, customers would now have more options of buying AGS hatchback with the new Alto K10.
While the company sells around 4,000 units of the Celerio a month, its expects to sell around 7,000 units of the Alto K10, he said.
Sine its inception in 2000, the Alto brand has sold around 26 lakh units.
The Alto K10 that was launched in 2010 has around four-lakh cars on road.