As hatchbacks give way, Maruti Suzuki to continue focus on bigger vehicles

Maruti Suzuki is the country's largest car maker and its position of prominence has primarily been due to the share enjoyed by small and hatchback segments in the overall passenger vehicle market. But in recent years, customers have increasingly started preferring SUVs and it is a fact that has not gone unnoticed by Maruti. The company entered the mid-size SUV space only recently with the Grand Vitara and now says newer products are being worked on which would co-exist with hatchbacks.

Maruti Suzuki has had a busy 2022 with launches galore. While most of the products were essentially facelifts - Baleno, Brezza, Ertiga, XL6 and Alto to name a few, the biggest buzz was reserved for Grand Vitara. The company has received over 75,000 orders for the vehicle since July with a third for the strong-hybrid variant. It may well be a sign of things to come. “We have to follow customer preferences, if customer choices change, we have to change too. You will see more SUV-type products in times to come, at Auto Expo and later in 2023 and 2024," said RC Bhargava, Chairman at Maruti Suzuki India Limited.

But does that mean smaller cars - the core strength for Maruti - would be sidelined? Bharagava says no. “Of course we will continue to develop hatchback segment too, look at the sheer size of the volume there. If 11 lakh units are sod each year, you cannot ignore these. The attention to the hatchback segment would be the same as before, only change would be in the production percentage weightage."

Bhargava is also taking heart from the fact that Maruti Suzuki, and the Indian auto industry at large, is up and running after what were three very challenging years of Covid and semiconductor shortage. “Maruti Suzuki forecasts sales to be in same order as 2018-19, by end of this year. Industry will be above a few percentage points from 2018-2019," he said, pointing to performance of hatchbacks and smaller car segments as the reason for the minor difference.