Fastest bookings: Maruti Suzuki's Swift cross 90,000 units in less than 2 months

MUMBAI: Maruti SuzukiBSE -1.61 %'s premium hatchback Swift is close to earning the tag of the Indian car that logged 100,000 bookings in the shortest time — just a little over two months — trumping compact sedan stablemate ‘Dzire’, which had touched the milestone in 12-14 weeks.

Bookings for the third-generation Swift had opened on January 18. By end of business hours on Friday, its pan-India bookings crossed 90,000 units, according to data shared by Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest passenger carmaker which is the largest volume contributor for Japan’s Suzuki Motor. Company executives said bookings would top 100,000 within a week at this rate.

As per ET’s calculations, one Swift hatchback is being booked almost every minute, and the company will be able to generate business of close to $1 billion from this model in just 60-65 days of bookings being opened.

The previous two generations of Swift had done well too, but not seen bookings at such a fast clip. Also, some of the other fast-selling vehicles in India have taken much longer to reach the 100,000 units mark. For instance, Renault’s Kwid took six months, Hyundai's SUV Creta took eight months, while Maruti’s Dzire and SUV Vitara Brezza took about four months each.

Data from dealerships showed that about 31% of the bookings for Swift is for its top-end variant, while more than 50% is for the mid-trim version.

“It is a feeling of déjà vu with the Swift… As first and second generations were already bestsellers. They had surpassed all our forecasts. Historically, it has been a model that’s been on waitlist all throughout, generation after generation, even when one generation was being phased out for the next,” RS Kalsi, executive director of sales and marketing at Maruti Suzuki told ET. Bookings may take six to eight months to stabilise, he said.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited