Maruti Suzuki comes at the top position in the Indian auto market. It has captured most segments like entry-level hatchbacks, premium hatchbacks, compact sedans and compact MPVs very well. The company has a C-segment sedan Ciaz coming up next month with the SX4 S-Cross is due for launch early next year. Maruti pays some amount of royalty to Suzuki every quarter because even though the vehicles are manufactured in India, their development takes place in Japan. Now, top officials from Maruti have stated that they are aiming to launch new SUVs and MPVs in India in full force and implementation of this plan will take place as early as next year.
Maruti Suzuki has invested Rs. 2000 crore to set up a new R&D facility at Rohtak and that includes a test track too. Ajay Seth, CFO, Maruti Suzuki, said that they have a very powerful SUV and MPV product line-up coming in the next few months in India. These products have been jointly developed with Suzuki and a lot of workforce has been done by the company’s India R&D centre. Due to this, Maruti will have to pay lesser royalty to Suzuki than what it generally pays. The company had displayed the XA Alpha SUV concept long back and the SUV will now finally be launched in the second half of 2015. Maruti is also coming up with a new MPV that will be positioned above the Ertiga.
The Maruti XA Alpha will be fighting it out with the Renault Duster, Nissan Terrano and Ford EcoSport. The company is developing some new diesel engines in the 1.2-litre, 1.4-litre and 1.6-litre capacities and it is likely that one of these engines may be used on the SUV. Apart from this, the new MPV from Maruti will rival the Toyota Innova and the company is also coming out with the iV-4 SUV that will replace the ageing Grand Vitara. Maruti is also coming up with a new LCV in the near future. Maruti owns over 40% share in the Indian market but it has been losing its share to competition with so many better products coming out in the market.
