Maruti Suzuki, the Indian arm of Japanese car maker Suzuki Motor Corporation, has been in the country for more than three decades and is a market leader of entry-level cars with its Maruti 800 and Alto having achieved cult status. But its effort to make headway in the premium cars and utility vehicle segments has met with very limited success.
However, the tide seems to be finally turning in Maruti’s favor, if recent sales figures are any indication. In the past two months, Maruti has overtaken Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) to become India’s largest utility vehicle (UV) maker, reports Economic Times.
With its latest offering of compact SUVs Vitara Brezza and S-Cross, Maruti has overcome the sustained dominance of M&M’s Scorpio and Bolero models. On the other hand, M&M’s sub-4 meter SUVs – KUV 100, TUV 300, Nuvo Sport and Bolero Plus failed to enthuse buyers.
Led by robust demand for Vitara Brezza and the Ertiga MPV, Maruti sold 5,500 more SUVs than M&M in the first two months of FY18. Industry figures show that M&M sold 18,363 units in April and 19,331 in May, compared with Maruti’s 20,638 units in April and 22,608 in May.
The cumulative utility vehicle sales of Maruti in the two months of FY18 stood at 43,246 units, compared with 37,694 units for M&M for the same period. With the addition of fresh capacity, Maruti was able to register a growth of 45% in utility vehicle volumes, whereas M&M registered a decline of 6%.