Maruti Suzuki offers raksha pack to enhance customer safety

MUMBAI: "Gift your family a raksha pack," is the sales pitch doing the rounds across Maruti Suzuki dealerships these days, coinciding with the festival of Raksha Bandhan. Maruti started offering airbags and anti-lock braking system (ABS) as an option — at an extra cost of Rs 6,000-20,000 on entry-level cars — a year ago, but the demand for these safety features has been dismal.

For instance, just one in 20 buyers of the Alto, the top selling small car, opts for the safety pack. While Raksha Bandhan does not bring in sales like other festivals, this new initiative, along with a series of television commercials propagating safety released recently, shows the market leader's focus on safety in a bid to differentiate from the rest. Heightened competition from the Renault Kwid and Datsun Redi-Go is making it go on overdrive.

Further, safety is gaining more weight post the dismal rating of Indian cars tested by Global NCAP. The awareness towards having safer vehicles has gone up and it is expected that manufacturers take the responsibility to offer vehicles which are safer and don't compromise with the lives of their occupants.

CV Raman, executive director of engineering at Maruti, said the possible reason behind the lack of interest for the safety pack in the entry segment is that the car is primarily only a source of mobility for the consumer. "Since the perceivable value of airbag is quite low, the penetration of the airbag option is also low in this segment. However, in higher segments, customers typically opt for highest trims that have built-in safety features. With increase in awareness levels, penetration in entry segments is expected to increase in future," Raman said.

Although Maruti offers airbags and ABS in almost all models, either as standard or as an option, only 37% of its customers choose safety features (driver airbag/co-driver airbag, ABS with electronic brakeforce distribution or EBD). Even for this 34%, the main contributors are the Baleno and Vitara Brezza which get the safety equipment as standard. The scenario in the top-selling mini segment is disturbing. The Alto, where just 5% of customers are opting for airbags, accounts for almost 16% of Maruti's domestic sales and 21% of passenger car sales.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited