Indian Autos blog

The numero uno automaker in India – Maruti Suzuki – is going strong with the launch of the Ertiga. With 10,000+ booking mopped up, the Ertiga looks capable to dethrone the Innova.

With other manufacturers like Tata and Hyundai constantly struggling to reach to the top slot, what is the success mantra of Maruti Suzuki? How is it that despite of other manufacturers having a strong portfolio, Maruti Suzuki is constantly outsmarting its competition?

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It seems that ‘Diesel’ is where the battle will be won or lost. With the increasing petrol prices, recent rumor being that oil companies want a Rs 8-10 increase, it is becoming increasingly difficult to run a petrol car.

Manufacturers are seeing that their product mix of petrol and diesel is changing to as adverse as 80% diesels. Clearly, this rapid dieselification of the market has caught everyone by surprise.

However, with the government showing signs of favoring the diesel engine cars, manufacturers are betting big on diesel.

With 10,000 bookings and counting, Maruti Suzuki blasted the critics who complained about a steep diesel variant pricing strategy. The Ertiga is just a small step the market leader has planned to get back to utter dominance in the Indian automobile market. In the last couple of months, Maruti Suzuki has bled from its nose.

With the labour union fiasco, the company’s market share fell to as low as 38.44 percent in third quarter of year 2011 from 45 percent in the starting of the year.

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The internet is abuzz with news that the Maruti Ertiga has mopped up a mind-blowing 10,000 bookings in five days of its launch.

The Ertiga stations on an extended Swift platform, sharing its complete interior with the Dzire. It also debuted a new 1.4-liter K Series petrol engine alongside the familiar 1.3-liter MultiJet engine that many term as the national diesel engine of India.

Maruti has priced the petrol variants of the Ertiga very aggressively anticipating low demand initially, while the diesel, understandably, has been priced a bit higher that most expected. The split between the two variants in this initial round of bookings is yet to be verified though some Maruti officials were expecting 8/10 cars to be diesel.

Is an era about to end? Is the car that started it all, ready to bid adieu to the Indian roads? DNA reports that Maruti Suzuki is ending the production of 800 this month. Although the 800 sells a decent 2,000 odd units every month, Maruti Suzuki is looking to make a move on.

The Maruti 800 was launched in 1983 as a cheaper alternative for the Ambassadors and Padminis. Back then cars were expensive and the 800 was the first affordable car for the Indian masses. It was the dream of Sanjay Gandhi that every Indian should be able to afford a car for his family.

On the sidelines of the launch of the Maruti Ertiga in Chennai, Mr Shashank Srivastava, Chief General Manager (Marketing) Maruti Suzuki, spoke to IndianAutosBlog.com on the future of the Ritz. He declined to comment on the launch plan for the Ritz but explained how refreshing products continuously is the way to keep competition at bay.

[Left - Speculative rendering of the Ritz facelift with reworked grille and triangular foglight enclosures]

We asked Mr Srivastava his thoughts on lending a cosmetic refreshment to the Ritz and upgrading the 1.2-liter K Series engine with VVT technology now found on the Swift and Dzire models to make it a worthy alternative to customers who may be put off by the long waiting periods of the Swift.

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Though there is a huge waiting period for Maruti Suzuki’s popular hatchback Swift, the automaker is still pushing to make sure that it remains at the top of the leader board. Maruti is producing 20,000 units of the Swift every month at the plant to bring down waiting periods. The Swift has climbed the sales ladder after the launch of the new generation model.

Maruti Suzuki has recently launched a limited edition Swift Alpha model which includes day-to-day features such as:

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Does the diesel engines hold the future of the Indian passenger car market? With rising petrol prices, most manufacturers are shifting the bulk of their production from petrol to diesel. Many manufacturers who do not have a diesel engine in their portfolio have majorly bleed their market share heavily in the recent months while those who have highly efficient diesel variants have gained market share.

Maruti Suzuki does not have a diesel engine in its portfolio. The manufacturer was saved by Fiat’s highly efficient diesel engine –Multijet. With the help of Multijet, Maruti Suzuki has managed to retain its dominance but just marginally. The company’s market share has been consistently falling despite posting record sales.

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