Maruti to Launch Diesel SX4 in February
Maruti Suzuki India is scheduling to launch the diesel alternative of SX4 in India next month. The diesel variant will also be facelifted with few cosmetic changes inside out, which was also exhibited by Suzuki in China. The Maruti SX4 Diesel will be motorized by the same 90 PS diesel engine which propels the Linea and the Manza. Unlike the permanent geometry turbo on the Swift DDiS, the SX4 diesel will introduce the variable geometry version which not only offers more power, but delivers it more linearly. The business is scheduling to price the diesel alternative of the SX4 aggressively, which has not been doing too well due to the lack of a diesel option. The SX4 is at present available only with a petrol engine, which isn’t quite as fuel effective as some of its other counterparts.
Maruti Cars To Get More Expensive
The Indian auto giant Maruti Suzuki has rised the price of its cars by up to Rs 8,000 across all portfolio vehicles. However, the price of company’s volume driving tiny car Alto K10 has been kept unchanged. The vehicle maker has blamed the constantly rising input material cost for the hike. Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) managing executive officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek told that they did increase the prices on January 17 ranging between 0.5%and 2.2%. This translates into a price hike in the range of s 1,000 and Rs 8,000 across different collection models of the company (except Alto K10).
Earlier very last month, MSI had announced that it would increase the price of its cars in India during January due to a steep rise in the necessary input materials including steel, copper and natural rubber. The company however hadn’t open the size of this hike at that time. While elaborating the sharp growth in the price of essential input materials, Mr. Pareek had declared in December last year, "The price of natural rubber, which used to be Rs 100 per kg, has gone up to Rs 200 per kg. Copper cost has increased by 12-15 % and steel has also seen a similar increase.”
Maruti hike price of its cars next week
Maruti Suzuki which is the largest auto maker in the country, said on Thursday that it will hike the price of its cars in India from next week. The corporation has blamed higher input costs for this price hike. It is to be mentioned here that Maruti has already increased the price of its collection cars twice in the current financial year. The domestic car giant is struggling with shrinking margins due to a continuous rise in key row materials such as natural rubber, steel and aluminum. What has made the situation even more hard for the company is forcing in the value of the yen against the U.S. dollar, making imported parts costlier for the auto maker.
According to newest statement given to the reporters, Maruti's managing officer for sales and marketing, Mayank Pareek said, "We will have to increase it (car prices) now." He however has not revealed the dimension of this prospective price hike. The company will increase the monthly production of its highest selling small car Alto to 40,000 vehicles from 32,000 vehicles, currently. "We have asked vendors to ramp up supplies for the Alto as we envisage a major jump in volumes," another Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. official said.
Maruti to produce 1.2million cars this year
Demand for Maruti cars is increasing day by day and Maruti Suzuki India is planning to manufacture 12 Lakh cars this year. Maruti Suzuki's Managing Executive I V Rao said - “We are looking at manufacture 12 Lakh vehicles in this financial year, as compared to 10 Lakh units produced last financial year, From the last 5 months we are now manufacturing one lakh vehicles per month". We are going to increase manufacturing capacity when the second plant at Manesar commences next fiscal, he said.
Maruti is also setting up test track and plans to hire 1000 plus engineers to produce its future vehicles completely in India.
Maruti Kizashi ready to take on competitors in India
Maruti Suzuki Kizashi, the much anticipated premium sedan that will mark the company’s entry in the premium sedan segment in India, is ready to give its competitors a run for their money. The car will be launched in the country in the last week of January 2011. The major competitors of the Kizashi in India include Chevrolet Cruze, Toyota Corolla Altis, Honda Civic, Volkswagen Jetta and Volkswagen Passat.
The company hopes that Kizashi will get good acceptance from the Indian buyers. Mr. RC Bhargawa, chairman, Maruti Suzuki, recently said in an interview given to ET, “When the Kizashi comes, you will find that it is very well designed, fully loaded car like most of our products. We may certainly not get to the No.1 position, but I think the Maruti Kizashi will get good acceptance. We will at least learn a little more about what customers in that segment want and I would be surprised if there isn’t a reasonably good response to the Kizashi.” Kizashi sedan will sport a 2.4L petrol engine that will be capable of delivering a peak power of 185 bhp with 230 Nm of peak torque. The power packed engine of the car will come mated with a highly sophisticated six-speed manual transmission. Kizashi will be initially imported as a completely built unit (CBU) from Japan
Indias December Car Sales Signal Continued Growth
Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car maker, joined peers in reporting strong December vehicle sales, underlining robust growth momentum in one of the fastest growing auto markets. Maruti and local rivals including Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra face rising competition as global carmakers expand operations in India and launch new models aimed at tapping India’s growing middle-class. “India is still a small market but it will be really big in the next five-seven years. That growth potential is drawing all the car makers here,” said Umesh Karne, auto analyst at Brics Securities in Mumbai. Maruti, 54.2 percent-owned by Suzuki Motor Corp, said on Tuesday its sales rose 17 percent to 99,225 vehicles in December versus a year ago. “The competition has been building up for some years now, but the key parameters remain the same — good products, competitive pricing and good after-sales service,” R.C. Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki, said.
“Our sales numbers would have been higher were it not for a six-day planned maintenance shutdown in December,” Bhargava told Reuters. Domestic passenger vehicle sales have grown 32 percent between April and November, according to industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Industry data through December will be released next week. Shares of Maruti, with a market value of $9.2 billion, rose 1 percent to out-perform the broader market. The company, whose top-selling car is the small Alto, makes about 3,800 vehicles a day and is targeting annual production of 1.85 million by end-2012. Most carmakers, including Indian units of foreign companies , posted double-digit percentage growth figures in December. Ford India’s sales jumped 172 percent from a year ago to 4,301 units in the period. Honda Siel Cars India, the Indian unit of Japan’s Honda Motor Co posted a 20 percent growth in December sales.
Toyota Motor Co’s Indian unit sold 5 percent more cars in December, while Hyundai Motor Group’s sales in India rose 17 percent in the same period. General Motors India, which plans to launch six new vehicles and invest $500 million over the next two years, posted a 4 percent rise in December sales. Volkswagen December sales in India soared 14 times, driven by launches of its small car Volkswagen Polo and sedan Vento. Sales of the Nano, Tata Motors’ so-called ‘People’s Car’, which had fallen to a low of 509 units in November following incidents of the car catching on fire and poor financing facilities, rebounded to 5,784 in December, coinciding with a new marketing and financing strategy.
Maruti Suzuki Alto Is No.1 Small Car In World
This is first time ever for any Indian car company. Maruti Suzuki Alto has become the biggest selling small car in the world in 2010. Maruti Alto has beaten Fiat Uno and Volkswagen Gol in Brazil and Volkswagen Golf in Germany for the top spot. Maruti Suzuki Alto registered a 25% increase in sales in the previous year to over 300,000 vehicles, helped mostly by a peppier version - the Alto K10 - launched in the middle of 2010. During the same period, the two Volkswagen cars suffered a decline in sales with the Golf slipping down to third spot.
“The K10 has been very well received and has been responsible for the enlargement that we witnessed last year. We are confident it will do even better this year,” said IV Rao, managing executive officer (engineering), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. The success of Maruti Alto can be traced back from the time it was launched as since 2006 it has been able to stand as the largest selling car in India and now recognition at the global level has added further to its success story. The company is still aiming big for the car with a target sales of 4 lakh vehicles for the year 2011.
SCOOP: New Dzire under 4 metres
The next generation Swift Dzire based on the all-the new Suzuki Swift platform will have a length of less than 4 metres, according to sources in Maruti. This will allow the future Dzire to qualify as a ‘small car’ and attract only 10 percent excise duty instead of 22 percent for bigger cars like the current Dzire which is 4160mm long. The new Dzire will use the same 84bhp 1.2 petrol and 75bhp 1.3 turbo-diesel from the existing model but there is also talk of a 90bhp version of the Fiat-sourced diesel motor as well. The plan and growth of the new Dzire is being done completely in-house by Maruti as this model will only be sold in the Indian market. Since the new Swift platform is bigger than before, the challenge for Maruti engineers is to integrate a boot that fits under the four-metre length.
There is a worry that shortening the Dzire’s length could compromise Maruti’s best-selling saloon because length is critical for the premium image of a saloon car. Also, boot space would be significantly reduced as well. However, the flip side is cost funds of around Rs 40,000 (thanks to excise duty savings) and we expect a significant amount of this advantage to be passed onto consumers. Looking at the response to the Etios, the Dzire’s first serious competitor, we expect the new Maruti Swift Dzire to be very aggressively priced. The new Dzire is likely to be launched soon after the Swift hatchback in the second half of 2011.
Maruti to launch seven models
This is seeming that Maruti is planning to counter the offensive by competitors like GM, Ford and Volkswagen. Maruti plans as many as seven models in next 12-18months. We already reported you about the launch of Kizashi,SX4 diesel and new swift. Four more models will attach up. The key point here is Maruti plans not only includes small cars but also MPVs and Sedans. Call it an etios effect? Maruti plans to launch the new Dzire based on new swift platform soon. The new dzire will be sub 4-meter and will enjoy the excise advantage of small car. MPV based on RIII concept will hit the market by end 2011 or 2012 auto expo. Maruti RIII MPV is expected to take on the likes of Mahindra Xylo and Tata Sumo grande. Maruti also plans a diesel variant of gypsy or compact SUV (might be Jimny wagon). Maruti could use suzuki’s partnership with Volkswagen for its diesel requirement. In addition to all these, Maruti also plans another small car in the alto segment.
Thar Effect: Maruti Gypsy out, Suzuki Jimny in?
The Maruti Gypsy is known as a mountain goat amongst the off roading circuit who love the Gypsy for it’s agility and go anywhere capability. With more comfortable SUVs available in the Indian car market, only the most diehard Gypsy fans and off roading enthusiasts still buy the fuel injected Maruti Gypsy King, which incidentally is still available as a made-to-order car from Maruti Suzuki. The majority of the Gypsy sales still come from the prepared armed forces and the Police forces across the country. The cold, hard reality that the Maruti Gypsy is on it’s last legs is an indisputable fact and for quite some time now, talk about the Gypsy’s successor has been doing the rounds.
Today, our friends over at Wheels Unplugged have carried a story about Maruti Suzuki mulling an entry stage SUV on the lines of the two door Suzuki Jimny, but with the addition of two more doors to suit Indian preferences. Also, the petrol engine will be dumped in favour of a ordinary rail diesel mill that will be more frugal as well more torquier than equivalent petrol engines, in other words, the perfect engine in SUV territory. Coming to the Suzuki Jimny, this SUV which was designed as the Gypsy’s successor has, for long been selling in many countries across the world including the Japanese Domestic Market. Highly acclaimed for it’s impeccable off road manners, the Suzuki Jimny has been a standard staple among the off roading crowd with many likening the Jimny to a condensed account of the Land Rover Defender and that is quite a comparison to make, especially considering the massive cred the Land Rover Defender enjoys. The engine options in the global models of the Jimny is the 1.3 Liter, Tried and Tested Suzuki M13A DOHC Petrol mill producing about 80 Bhp of shove and 110 Nm of torque. What most serious off roaders would be intersted is the diesel engined Jimny, which comes with Renault’s acclaimed K9K Common Rail Diesel good for about 85 Bhp of power and 200 Nm of solid twist force.
While the Renault mill has gamely powered the Jimny on, in India, Suzuki’s tie up with Volkswagen for Diesel engines might just spawn a common rail diesel engine from the Volkswagen stables, which probably could be the 1.2 Liter CR Diesels that is used in Volkswagen Polo Hatchback. We would still like Maruti to outfit the Indian Jimny with the 1.3 Liter FIAT Multijet Diesel Engine which is the class leader when it comes to small diesel engines that are both frugal and powerful.Throw in a five pace manual gearbox or the optional automatic gearbox with an All Wheel Drive option, the mountain goat to replace another mountain goat is all set to travel into India. But all isn’t hunky dory for the Jimny. The Jimny, like the Gypsy doesn’t exactly love corner carving and the handling still remains MUVish than that which would rival a Sedan. While that is acceptable for a hard core off roader, what Maruti really needs to act on is the ride quality of the Jimny that definitely would need some sorting out as the Gypsy King is abhorred by families for the bone shattering ride it offers on tarmac. So, that is one aspect Maruti needs to look at if it expects more families to buy the Jimny as a second car. So, there, that is the Suzuki Jimny for you, which could be brought to India as the Maruti Suzuki Jimny at INR 6-7 Lakhs if Maruti finds the now launched Mahindra Thar to be a brisk seller amongst the Indian off roading crowd. Like they say, god bless competition.