Maruti Suzuki, which has the widest offering in the compact car segment, is of the view that the all-new Swift will attract a “specific target group” and is unlikely to wean away customers who are looking to buy other models from its portfolio. A senior company official stated that while SUVs will continue to boom, premium hatchbacks such as Swift and Baleno will also continue to grow in the next five to six years.
“For the Swift, there is a dedicated community, which comprises of some diehard fans of this iconic brand. They like the DNA of this product, which will attract a different set of customers. It will continue to attract those set of buyers,” Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki told Moneycontrol.
It is to be mentioned that Maruti Suzuki India has launched the all-new Swift at a starting price of Rs 6.49 lakh that goes up to Rs 9.64 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The fourth generation Swift will be taking on another superhatch Hyundai i20 ( Rs. 7.04 - 11.21 lakh price range) and can also be subscribed for Rs 17,436 per month.
The profile of the Swift customers are young buyers between late 20s and early 30s, who are salaried class and 56 percent of them are first time buyers, said Banerjee. That is the reason the company will continue with the same retail strategy of selling this superhatch from Arena chain of outlets than from Nexa (which sells Baleno, Fronx, etc)
“The customers are young and dynamic, fun loving driving and are looking to do things differently,” added Banerjee. “Baleno customers, on the other hand, are higher in age, with a higher monthly household income. So they are mature customers (for Baleno) versus a young and dynamic customer (for Swift).
It is to be mentioned that Maruti Suzuki Baleno is priced in the range of Rs. 6.66 - 9.88 lakh.
In Banerjee’s view, the premium hatchback segment will grow from 7 lakh units per annum to 1 million units in annual sales by 2030. This represents a compounded annual growth rate of 5-6 percent of the next six years.
“We already command a marketshare of 62 percent in the premium hatch (segment of the market). We are looking for incremental volumes with the Swift,” added Banerjee.
Without sharing any sales target for the next-gen Swift, he stated that the company has already garnered 10,000 units of bookings. He also didn’t give any forecast on the projected sales split between manual and automatic transmission.
“If you see the product has many features starting from the base variant. So let’s wait and watch actually how the bookings are going to come. So maybe, maybe I can give you a better reply after a month's time,” noted Banerjee.
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