The dominance of SUVs in India is increasing day by day. As customers began to prefer SUVs more and more, car manufacturers also started focusing more on SUVs. Due to this, the sales of small hatchbacks decreased drastically and the arrival of new small cars also decreased.
It was at this time that Maruti launched a new updated version of Swift, one of their best-selling car models in India, yesterday (May 9). Hisashi Takeuchi, the company’s managing director and CEO, also shared about their future plans at the launch event of the car.
He said that Maruti has captured the majority of the market share in the small car segment after various car manufacturers have discontinued the car launch. He said that the preferences of the customers will not always be the same and people will again turn towards small hatchback models.
Maruti’s cheapest model Alto, which was previously the best selling model in India, is now not even in the top 10 list. Commenting on this, he said that earlier the choices were less, the purchasing power of the people was also less and the sales of small cars like Alto were high. But now, the economy is growing, the purchasing power of the people has increased and the choices for the customers have also increased. Therefore, he said, sales of small cars have declined.
He also said that Maruti will continue to focus more on hatchback car models and will continue to launch new models in other segments in their portfolio. At yesterday’s event, he also stated the reason why Maruti will continue to focus on the hatchback segment.
In other developed countries 600 out of 1000 people use cars. But only 32 out of 1000 people in India are car users. Hence, the number of new car customers is high. New car buyers tend to opt for entry-level hatchbacks. Hence, Maruti will continue to focus on that segment, he said. He also said that Maruti is working on setting a target of selling 40 lakh cars per year in India by 2030-31.
