Maruti bets big on rural demand to drive sales

Maruti Suzuki India is hoping that declining trend in fuel prices and robust rural demand will lift passenger vehicle sales in the remaining months of FY19, a senior company executive said on Wednesday. Petrol prices in New Delhi have come down 10% since hitting record Rs 84/litre on October 4. The domestic auto sales were hit during the festival season by Kerala floods, increase in insurance premium and liquidity crunch in the market.

Kalsi said that sales picked up during the Diwali week as compared to Navratras but was far off from festive-period buoyancy in the market. “Dhanteras and Diwali fared better than Navratras period. But it wasn’t in line with our expectations,” Kalsi added. According to car dealers, Diwali festival sales were down 15-20% y-o-y across manufacturers. MSIL on Wednesday launched an all-new version of its mid-size multi purpose vehicle (MPV) Ertiga with a starting at Rs 7.44 lakh.

The petrol variants, including two automatic transmission trims, are powered by an all-new 1.5 litre engine and are priced between Rs 7.44 lakh to Rs 9.95 lakh. The diesel variants have the same 1.3 litre engine as the earlier version and are tagged between Rs 8.84 lakh to Rs 10.9 lakh.

MSIL has invested over Rs 900 crore in the development of the new Ertiga. It will take on the likes of Honda BR-V and Mahindra Marazzo in the mass market MPV space, which are available in a price range of Rs 9.45 lakh and Rs 13.9 lakh.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited