Maruti launches new Alto K10 at Rs. 3.06 lakh

The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) on Monday launched an automatic version of its bestselling small car brand Alto K10 at a price of ₹ 3.80 lakh, making it India's cheapest ungeared car.

The company also refreshed the entire line up of the K10 nameplate — the peppier version of the Alto — that accounts for nearly 40% of the brand's annual 258,281 unit sales in 2013-14. The four geared versions of the car are priced between ₹ 3.06 lakh and ₹ 3.57 lakh. The CNG version of the car is priced at ₹ 3.82 lakh.

The ungeared version of the K10 uses the automatic manual transmission first launched by the firm in its small car Celerio earlier this year. The K10's launch follows the success of the Celerio that surprised the company by the higher acceptance of the automatic version. It accounts for nearly 40% of Celerio's overall sales.

"Alto K10 is the third Maruti Suzuki car within few weeks where our suppliers and engineers have improved the fuel efficiency substantially," said Kenichi Ayukawa, MD and CEO, MSIL.

The petrol version of the car delivers a mileage of 24.07 km per litre while the CNG version has a fuel economy of 32.26 km per kg. The lone automatic or AGS variant has the same economy as its geared counterparts, one of the main reasons for its success in the Celerio.

The cars have been developed at a cost of ` 200 crore on the existing platform of the model by its engineers along with counterparts at parent Suzuki Motor Corp in Japan.

Launched in 2010, the Alto K10 has clocked cumulative sales of 4.3 lakh units in four years.