Its not rocket science that petrol cars are not selling as much as their diesel counterparts. Car manufacturers are finding it difficult to shift petrol cars as buyers look for more frugal offerings. Those cars having both petrol and diesel offerings are seeing almost 80% bias towards diesel variants. The problem is not only of selling, but diesel car production is always less than the supply due to which diesel vehicles are commanding a high waiting period. Many dealers are finding it difficult to push petrol variants, as buyers don’t mind waiting and paying the extra cost for the diesel-powered machines.

Now Maruti Suzuki has increased margins to the dealers by up to 10% to push petrol vehicles. This will lead to dealers getting more aggressive with you, the buyer to make you opt for a petrol car instead of a diesel. This is the first time in decade that Maruti Suzuki has increased dealer commissions. It is to be noted that Maruti Suzuki is facing a diesel capacity crunch and has resorted to FIAT to supply them Multijet diesel engines. The market share of Maruti has dropped to 40%, which has led to the company resorting increase in commissions. Also the increase in retail rent has caused decrease in profitability for some dealers.

Maruti Suzuki has crossed 1 crore sales in the Indian market, after 29 years of selling cars in the country. The first Maruti car (the original 800) rolled out in December 1983 and since then Maruti has dominated the Indian car market. It took Maruti Suzuki 23 years to sell 50 lakhs cars, while the other 50 lakh cars (of the total 1 crore) were sold in just 6 years. The 1 crore vehicle is a red Swift VXi. The top 5 models to get the sales for Maruti Suzuki include the M800 (26.36 lakh units), Alto (19.08 lakh units), Omni (14.37 lakh units), Wagon R (11.14 lakh units) and Swift (6.85 lakh units).

One such model which has not contributed much to the 1 crore number is the Maruti Suzuki SX4. The company has now launched a celebration edition of the SX4 to mark 1 crore sales. This celebration edition is available in white colour only and carries body graphics and decal. The SX4 Celebration Edition also features new seat fabric, chrome AC louvers, chrome inside door handles, cubic printing on arm rest, cerebration floor mats and pillow. This will be available in limited numbers.

The country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Limited has announced that it will be setting up another of its stockyard facility in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Maruti Suzuki models are known for commanding massive waiting periods which the company wishes to bring down. The current DZire takes up to 3 to 4 months for delivery from its booking date. The company had recently set up another such stockyard in Bangalore for similar purposes. Mr. Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Officer of MSIL has said that the company will be opening up the Nagpur facility soon.

The stockyard would aim to reduce the transit time and eventually increase the number of deliveries of vehicles. Mr. Pareek also added that the stockyard would be setup region wise so as to bring down the delay in deliveries of the vehicles. The Bangalore stockyard would be catering to the deliveries of the South while the upcoming Nagpur facility is expected to cover the West and Central parts of India. The company recently unveiled the new Swift DZire which is sub 4 meters in length. The new Swift launched last year has already been a huge hit and commands months of waiting time today also.

Setting up stockyards region wise is preferably a good decision taken by the company in the face of growing competition. High waiting periods can be bad for the company as the customer looks for its competitor products to suit his or her needs. With such cut throat competition between auto makers in the Indian auto market, losing a customer can be a big loss.

Maruti Suzuki has been hit by capacity constraints and had to resort to procuring diesel engines from FIAT. Now the company has got the go ahead of the board to setup its own diesel engine plant in Gurgaon, which will produce the 1248cc, DDiS (Fiat’s Multijet) diesel engines. Currently Maruti Suzuki sources diesel engines from Suzuki Powertrain India, which produces 3 lakh diesel engines per annum. Maruti Suzuki also has a petrol engine plant in Gurgaon and the diesel plant will give a much needed relief to all those waiting for their diesel powered Swifts to arrive.

This new diesel plant will see Maruti Suzuki invest close to Rs. 1000 crore. Location for the plant is being scouted but the company is taking it slow as it awaits the Governments decision on deregulation of fuel prices. This new diesel engine plant will manufacture 1 lakh units every year as demand for diesel powered vehicles increases. Currently Maruti sells the Ritz, Swift, Swift DZire and SX4 with diesel engines. The Ertiga MPV will be using the same diesel engine as the SX4 and thus increasing capacity is the right choice for India’s largest car maker.

Currently Maruti Suzuki is just about sustaining as far as diesel engine supplies go. Suzuki Powertrain is running on optimum capacity, while FIAT will soon start supplying diesel engines manufactured at Ranjangaon. FIAT and Maruti Suzuki have a three year agreement for diesel engine supply, after which Maruti Suzuki might have to rely on its own output of engines. This diesel engine plant is expected to start producing engines as soon as early-2013 and can be upscaled to manufacture more diesel engines should the need arise.

The country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Limited has been voted as the country’s most trusted automotive brand. The survey was published in “The Brand Trust Report, India Study 2012” by Brand trust Advisory. As per the report, Maruti Suzuki is followed by other automotive OEMs like BMW, Hero Honda, Toyota and Honda in order of their ranking. Other manufacturers like Ford, Audi, Skoda, Hero and Yamaha also featured among the top ten trusted automotive brands. It was interesting to note that the second largest manufacturer, Hyundai Motors didn’t feature among the top ten companies. Also not making to the top 10 was Tata Motors. The CEO of Trust Research Advisory, Mr. N Chandramouli said that for the survey 61 tangible and intangible aspects of the brand were evaluated which on combining reflected the positive behaviours and attitudes towards a brand.

The survey was conducted between August to November last year by taking into account responses of over 17,000 brands from over 2700 participants. The survey was conducted across 15 cities across the country and featured the top 1000 brands in different categories. The Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire was voted as the most trusted car and BMW the most trusted luxury brand. In case, you are interested in having some personal style statement brand apart from your car, the Italian based apparel label, Armani was voted as the most trusted brand. It is followed by Gucci and Diesel. Also, in personalities, Tata group chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata is ranked as the top business personality, followed by Vijay Mallya, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Dilip Chabria and Mukesh Ambani.

Maruti Suzuki has announced a price hike of between 0.3-3.4% on all its cars (except the Swift DZire) with immediate effect. This results in a price increase between Rs. 2400/- to Rs. 17,300/-. The company says the price hike became evident due to pressures on margins caused by the depreciating Rupee. The Rupee has fallen drastically against the dollar, making it more expensive for companies to import parts from abroad. But Maruti Suzuki is not alone in hiking prices as other manufacturers like Hyundai and Mahindra too have revised prices upwards. Other manufacturers like Volkswagen and Toyota are restraining from hiking prices due to falling demand in the domestic market.

The next obvious question is, why was the Maruti Swift DZire spared from the price hike? The Japanese automaker will be launching the next generation of the DZire, which will be a compact sedan on the 1st of February. The new model will incorporate the price hike at launch itself so the company feels there is no need to announce a separate price hike for the DZire. We feel that even after incorporating the increase in costs, Maruti Suzuki might just say that the prices of the DZire are introductory only and will see revision in the near future!

The country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Limited today announced that they will be bringing in a replacement to their long standing most sought after models, the Maruti 800 and the Maruti Alto. The company is currently on the process of development with this model and it is expected to hit the market sometime in near future. Mr. Shinzo Nakanishi, the Managing Director of Maruti Suzuki India Limited said that these 2 models had been in the Indian market for a very long long time and with change in market scenarios, the company is willing to bring out their replacement. He added that someday these models have to be changed and this is a step in that direction. Currently the car maker faces very stiff competition as many global players are eyeing to enter into this volume driven segment.

The biggest rival, Hyundai Motors has already launched its model, the Eon to compete with the Alto. Tata Motors is also trying hard to upset the market of the Alto with its Nano. Currently the new model for replacement of Alto and 800 is under development and the new model in expected to hit the market in about 2 years. The new model will have a more contemporary styling and will be powered by the same 800cc engine, but is expected to be tuned for higher fuel efficiency. Mr. Nakanishi also added that the current Alto K10 will continue to be sold in the market even after the introduction of the replacement model. According to him, the cost of the model change is going to be upwards Rs. 550 crores. Though, he didn’t divulge any further details about the model, he said that the new model will also be exported to countries like Latin America, North Africa and other Asian countries.

Maruti Suzuki has already confirmed its Auto Expo 2012 plans. The automaker will showcase small cars along with the production version of the Ertiga. Maruti Suzuki will also showcase a compact SUV concept, which will replace the Jimy and Gypsy in the near future. Looking at how Maruti Suzuki has launched cars, we can expect the compact SUV to go on sale in 2014. This compact SUV could be priced around Rs. 8 lakhs and would be positioned against the Ford EcoSport and Renault Duster. Maruti could use the SX4 platform for this compact SUV and also utilize powertrains from the SX4.

Maruti Suzuki has made an Auto Expo specific website here, which has teaser images of the upcoming SUV Concept. The teaser pictures showcase a bold grille, unique headlights, big wheels and L-shaped tail lights. After looking at the transition of the RIII Concept to Ertiga MPV, this compact SUV concept has very little significance on how the production version of Maruti’s Gypsy replacement will look. Any which way, Maruti Suzuki has the expertise of pricing its vehicles very competitively and we can expect the compact SUV too follow the same pricing strategy.

According to some media reports, the country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki might come up with another diesel plant in the next fiscal year. The company’s chairman, Mr. R. C. Bhargava said that the new diesel engine plant might come up next year in-case the government doesn’t impose any new extra taxes on diesel cars in the upcoming budget. He also added that the recent deal that was done with Fiat India for the supply of diesel engines was a time-gap arrangement until the company comes up with something concrete to meet the continuously growing demand for diesel engines on its own.

Currently, the diesel engines for the Maruti Suzuki cars are manufactured at Suzuki Powertrain India Limited in Manesar. The recent labour strikes at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant trickled down to Suzuki Powertrain India Limited also creating huge bottlenecks in terms of supplying diesel engines. Maruti Suzuki taking notice of this incident is considering now in regard to setting up a new plant in order to meet the market demand and de-risk its independence on Suzuki’s powertrain facility. According to the reports, this matter is likely to be taken up at the company’s up-coming board meeting in January 2012.

Maruti Suzuki has seen a sharp decline in its market share, after man car makers have entered into small car segment, making it highly competitive. Now India’s largest car maker wants to regain its 50% market share and is planning the launch of an MUV and SUV to drive this. These upcoming vehicles will be designed by both Indian and Japanese engineers and would be launched in 2012. The cars would make their way to the upcoming Auto Expo and will be displayed in their Concept avtar. We expect the MUV to be priced below Rs. 8 lakh, while the compact SUV could cost around Rs. 10 lakhs. Power is expected to come from the current crop of engines itself and Maruti will heavily rely on existing resources for its future models.

“There is a vast chunk of market, almost 18% of the passenger vehicles sold in India where we don’t have any presence. So, as we aim to regain our market share and take it to beyond 50%, we will introduce vehicles in the new segment that are not in our current portfolio,” S Nakanishi, MD, Maruti Suzuki, said.