Maruti Suzuki aims to take leadership position in SUV segment this fiscal

Maruti Suzuki India aims to take the leadership position in the SUV segment this fiscal with 25% market share by doubling its sales, a senior company official told PTI. The auto major sold 2.02 lakh sports utility vehicles (SUVs) last financial year with a market share of around 13%. In the current fiscal year, the company aims to sell around five lakh units.

The SUV segment is currently the fastest-growing vertical in the domestic passenger vehicle industry. The SUV contribution to the overall passenger vehicle market has grown from 24% in 2018 to 43% in 2022. Doubling of the market share in the SUV segment would help the company in its bid to again surpass the 50 per cent market share mark in the domestic passenger vehicle industry, said Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Officer - Sales & Marketing, Shashank Srivastava.

He added that the SUV market is expected to be around 19 lakh units this year. Brezza is leading the entry SUV segment while the company also expects Grand Vitara sales to expand this year. Besides, the addition of two new SUV models - Jimny and Fronx - will also help the company bring in additional volumes this fiscal.

Srivastava noted that the company has already received close to 41,000 bookings for the two models which are slated to hit the market over the next few months. He also noted that the company's SUV market share has been increasing over the last few fiscals. It stood at 10.5% in 2021-22 and increased to 13% last fiscal.

In the non-SUV segment, the company's market share stood at around 65% but due to low penetration in the SUV segment, its overall market share has gone below the 45% level. "If we want to increase it towards 50%, we will have to increase our market share in the SUV space and this is what we are trying to do," Srivastava added.