Maruti Suzuki is turning its focus on new segments as it looks to regain its 50% market share in India. The Japanese automaker was heavily relying on small cars for its profits and that is something which has resulted in its market share declining steadily to 38.44%. Now with people looking at other segments, it has become important for Maruti Suzuki to diversify its product offerings. The SX4 did manage to get some sales for Maruti Suzuki but the delight was short lived. Other than the hatchback offerings, it is just the Swift DZire and Eeco which gets Maruti Suzuki good volumes.
The recent launch of the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga has received very good response and the company has managed to receive a stellar 15000 bookings in just 7 days. While we still need to see how the Ertiga performs over a longer period of time, the market seems to have accepted the Ertiga quite well already. The Ertiga is currently the only vehicle in its segment and that is where Maruti Suzuki has a huge advantage. In 2005, India’s largest automaker had created the premium hatchback segment with the launch of the Swift. Such new segment exploration has done very well for the company, with the Alto K10 (a performance oriented small car) and the Eeco (a low priced people mover).
Maruti Suzuki’s next focus is the compact SUV space, a dormant segment till date with only the Premier Rio being the sole offering. But this segment is going to see some heavy action with the launch of the Renault Duster in October and the Ford EcoSport early next year. Maruti Suzuki plans to make a production version of the XA Alpha Concept SUV, which will share bits and pieces with the current generation Swift. The automaker has already advanced its plans to launch a compact SUV, which could be available as early as late next year. The compact SUV segment is where the action lies in the coming years with even General Motors and Hyundai developing a product to garner some market share.
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