Maruti Suzuki will officially launch its new Alto 800 on October 16th, roughly a month ahead of Diwali, to take advantage of the buyer sentiment during the festival season, a report on Wall Street Journal reveals.
Maruti will be the last manufacturer to be sucked into the peril caused by the disparity in the petrol and diesel fuel prices. Of course they don't have a small diesel motor to power their A Segment cars, but the same is true with rival companies.
Maruti's experience in selling simple and inexpensive cars has been impeccable and that is reflected in the amount of Altos and WagonRs moving out of the dealers every month.
In fact, the Alto sold 2 million units since its birth in India, and in 2011 Maruti managed to ship 3 lakh units, making it the world's best selling small car.
A Maruti Suzuki official, speaking to Wall Street Journal, said the company spent close to 270 crore rupees in developing the new Alto 800. It has emerged that the Alto 800 is about 15% more fuel efficient, better built and more spacious than the Alto F8D.
As we suspected from leaked photographs, Maruti will offer CNG variants from the time of launch, but there's no news of a diesel engine on this platform.
The report adds that the Maruti Alto 800 will be exported to markets in Latin America and Africa by December.
[Source - Online.wsj.com & CarBlogIndia.com]
