Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), which has been on a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) rollout spree over the last three months, is now looking to revitalize the segment it has always been known for—the entry level hatchbacks.
To give a kickstart to the A-segment of the domestic passenger vehicle market, the country’s car market leader is giving a complete makeover to the Alto, which also its bread-and-butter model. People familiar with the development said the company will be rolling out the aforementioned city car on August 18 and will be retailing the model across Maruti Suzuki Arena outlets in phases.
Apart from offering the Alto 800 variant, there is also a lot of buzz that an Alto K10 variant may be reintroduced in the market, the people said. There is also talk that MSIL may consider using the Maruti 800 nomenclature instead of the Alto 800. Company officials denied this.
When Moneycontrol.com reached out to Maruti Suzuki dealers, most of them confirmed that the new Alto is awaited, without sharing the timeline of the commercial rollout. One of them revealed that the price of the next-gen Alto will be slightly more than what it is for the current version (available at Rs. 3.39 lakh onwards). Incidentally, the third- gen Alto was spotted recently during the shoot of a television commercial.
Product features
The upcoming A-segment car Alto will be based on MSIL’s modular Heartect platform, which also underpins multiple product lines like the S-Presso, Celerio and WagonR, Ertiga and XL6. To be offered only in a petrol powertrain which is mated to a 5-speed manual or an Automated Manual Transmission (AMT), Alto 800 trim will continue to be powered by the existing 796cc three-cylinder naturally aspirated engine, the K10C will be equipped with the 1.0-litre DualJet engine. The new Alto may also get a Compressed Natural Gas-powered version later.
While the MSIL spokesperson didn’t respond to emailed queries until press time, Shashank Srivastava, Senior ED, Marketing & Sales at MSIL, said: “Well there is a surprise on 18th. All details can be shared only on that day.”
Srivastava had earlier told Moneycontrol.com that the company will not reduce its focus on the small car segment as he believes this segment is still very strong and still contributes 40% to the overall passenger vehicle market.
“In terms of absolute volumes, the market size of the hatches (A and B segments combined) is also pretty strong at 11.5 lakh units per annum (out) of 30 lakh vehicles sold. It is definitely under pressure because of (rising) commodity prices, (retail) price going up, affordability getting hit because of regulatory reasons, etc. So the hatches are not getting disappeared in the foreseeable future and is still a large market to serve,” said Srivastava over the phone earlier.
Solo run
Incidentally, the Maruti Suzuki Alto is being launched at a time when its arch rival Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) had pulled the plug on next-gen Santro (launched in 2018) recently.
Since Hyundai had already phased out the Eon in 2018 and so has Nissan Motor India of the Datsun-branded Go, Go+, and Redi Go, Maruti Suzuki is expected to have a solo run in the A-segment hatchback market.
“Minicar market has been shrinking and many carmakers like Hyundai, Datsun have even exited this segment. However Maruti Suzuki continues to maintain its leadership and re-energize the segment by further introducing more powertrain options in minicar segment,” said Puneet Gupta, Associate Director - Vehicle Sales Forecast - India & ASEAN, S&P Global Mobility.
According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Maruti Suzuki sold 211,762 units of Alto and S-Presso (positioned as Micro SUV) in FY 22, a decline from 226,159 units in FY 21. Renault Kwid (positioned as a micro-SUV), which is the only other model in this segment not sold by Maruti, saw retail sales of 26,535 units (40,834 units). The entry-level minicar market in India declined from 2,66,994 units in FY 21 to around 238,297 units a year in FY 22.
“In the last few years it, has been seen lot of first-time buyers are moving directly to compact cars/SUVs. However we feel with car penetration as low as 32/1,000 in India, the mini car provides a bridge for the consumers to upgrade from two-wheeler to car market. Undoubtedly, the task for Maruti is tough as overdose of regulations makes it is difficult to keep the price in a lower bracket,” added Gupta from S&P Global Mobility.
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