Maruti to strengthen SUV portfolio: Srivastava

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) will strengthen its product offerings in the fast-growing Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) segment to increase market share in the passenger vehicle segment, a top official said.

“Currently, we are lagging behind others in SUV offerings,” Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director, marketing and sales, told reporters.

“We have only two models out of 48 SUVs in the country and we need to strengthen it.”

In the non-SUV segment, MSIL enjoys a market share of 67%. The company’s entry-level SUV Brezza holds a market share of 22%. In the B-segment, comprising SUVs and MPVs, it has a 20% market share. MSIL gradually plans to increase the market share of the entire SUV portfolio to 50%.

“Going forward, the focus will be more on the SUV segment with more new models as new segments are emerging with the increase in sales volumes. For instance, the lifestyle SUV market is emerging. We have also identified many SUV sub-segments,” he said.

He also said that the country’s largest carmaker would be introducing a hybrid vehicle in two variants – mild and strong. The cars would be produced at the Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s Bidadi plant in Karnataka. It would be unveiled during the third week of July and mass production will commence by August.

“The upcoming hybrid SUV will be a game changer. We may discontinue the S-Cross model at a later stage. However, we will continue to make small cars,” he said.

Unveiling the new Brezza, he said that it had received more than 46,000 bookings in nine days and currently had a waiting period of four-and-a-half months. Efforts were being taken to increase production to reduce the waiting period.

Asked about chip shortage, he said that the situation had improved with plants operating at about 93-95% capacity.