Maruti Suzuki Launches Kizashi
Market leader Maruti Suzuki India today launched its luxury sedan Kizashi. The car would be available in 2 variants: the manual variant will cost Rs. 16.5 lakh and the automatic version has been priced higher at Rs. 17.5 lakh (ex-showroom) in Delhi. There was a lot of expectation over the pricing of the car since Maruti will import the Kizashi from parent Suzuki's facility in Japan. Maruti Kizashi is powered by a 2400cc litre petrol engine that will churn out 185 bhp of power. Kizashi will compete with Toyota Camry and Honda Accord at the upper end and Honda Civic, Volkswagen Jetta and Toyota Corolla at the lower end. These vehicles are priced between Rs. 12 to 20 lakh.
As per industry estimates, the size of the luxury car segment in the country is over 55,000 units per year. Maruti currently commands nearly 50% of the total Indian car market which was at 1.87 million units in 2010. Maruti India has been trying to get into the bigger car segment for some time now. Its 1st attempt with Baleno did not meet with much success but the company was able to make a mark with the mid-sized sedan Maruti SX4 in 2007.