Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car manufacturer, has been going through a hell of an experience in recent weeks.
The violent that erupted at the Manesar plant took the life of an employee and forced Maruti to shut down operations. It has affected production of its two best selling and most profitable models, the Swift and Dzire (which are now out of stock) while delaying the launch of the Alto 800, which was supposed to see a Diwali launch.
The company even stated that their plan to launch this much awaited Eon-competitor might have to be postponed, though measures were being taken to not miss the opportunity of a festive season launch. Every year, the time during Dusshera and Diwali sees a huge rush of customers heading to acquire new assets such as jewellery, household wares and vehicles.
Now our friends at ET have learnt that Maruti will launch the Alto 800 as per the original plan, to keep their market leadership ambitions afloat. The Manesar plant is reported to be restarting operation very soon. Currently the Gurgaon facility is taking the extra burden and running at full capacity.
See spyshots of the new Maruti Suzuki Alto 800
The new Alto 800 would be competing with variants of the Tata Nano and Hyundai Eon and could see a starting price of around Rs. 2.2 lakhs.
Currently, the models that are raking in the volumes are the Alto and Ertiga. Sales of the Alto CNG have increased in the last few months. The company is also working on an upgrade to the Maruti Ritz. We could see some new offers being tossed in during the festive season on slow-selling models, for Maruti to make up for the lost volumes.
[Source: Economictimes.IndiaTimes.com]
