While the share of SUVs in Maruti Suzuki’s sales rose to 22.4% in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 from 12.6% a year earlier, that of small cars – for long the bread and butter of the nation’s top passenger vehicle maker – fell to 53.2% from 58.8%.
Passenger vehicle buyers are increasingly preferring the feature-rich SUVs over sedans in India, especially in the mid-size segment, amid an increase in their purchasing power and because of the convenience that the SUVs offer with their upright seating position and roomier interiors.
SUVs accounted for 43% of all passenger vehicles sold in the country in the first quarter of this fiscal, compared with 32% for hatchbacks. Maruti Suzuki is funding the interest cost of its dealers on slow-moving vehicles, mostly entry-level models, that remain unsold for more than a month, ET reported Saturday.
The company, at the same time, has also been doubling down on efforts to meet changing customer requirements to increase its market share.
“We were the second largest player in the SUV segment last quarter with a market share of about 20%. We are on our way to meet our target of emerging as the number one player in this space by the end of the fiscal year,” Maruti Suzuki senior executive director (marketing and sales) Shashank Srivastava told ET.
The automaker is targeting combined sales of about 475,000 units of the Fronx, Brezza, Jimny and Grand Vitara in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. It had sold 202,800 SUVs in the last fiscal year.
“We have steadily been increasing our market share in the SUV segment, from 14.9% in January to 22% in June. With full-year availability of the Grand Vitara, and two new products in the compact SUV segment, it is possible to increase our market share to 24-25% in this category, if supplies are not affected,” Srivastava said.
He did not specify the production loss in the first quarter due to a shortage of semiconductors, saying that calculations were still underway, but said the availability of the chips should improve now.
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