Maruti Suzuki says small car segment to grow in volume terms

Country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India expects the small car segment to grow in large volume despite a decreasing share in the overall domestic passenger vehicles market, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd Senior Executive Director - Marketing & Sales, Shashank Srivastava told PTI. He said that though affordability is a major concern in the small-car segment, Maruti Suzuki is betting big on the first-time buyers and more customers from rural as well as suburban areas such as Tier II and III towns.

Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 was updated earlier in August in a bid to further attract potential first-time car buyers. Complete with design updates and more features, the latest Alto K10 is looking to build on its record sales numbers.
The Alto 800 and Alto K10 have been power players in the domestic car market in India. Over 43 lakh units of the model have been sold since Alto was introduced here back in 2000.
The latest Alto K10 continues to derive power from a 1,000 cc petrol motor which is paired with a familiar five-speed MT and an AGS unit.
There are some very significant design updates on the newest Alto K10, primarily on its face. The grille is now far bigger than before and has a honeycomb design pattern. The headlight units are smaller but sleeker and there are no provisions for fog light placement.
The Alto continues to stand on 13-inch wheels and honeycomb pattern now also finds a place on the wheel cap.
The rear of the new Alto K10 gets reworked tail lights.
The Alto K10 gets a seven-inch infotainment screen which is powered by SmartPlay Studio and comes complete with smartphone navigation. There are steering-mounted controls and a digital driver display. There is not much that has changed in terms of passenger space.
The Alto K10 remains a very familiar car to drive with its K-series engine giving it a whole lot of spunk.
While there is a lot of body roll still, the AGS option continues to make big sense in a car that would primarily do city rounds.
Maruti Suzuki Alto K10
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Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 was updated earlier in August in a bid to further attract potential first-time car buyers. Complete with design updates and more features, the latest Alto K10 is looking to build on its record sales numbers.
1/9
Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 was updated earlier in August in a bid to further attract potential first-time car buyers. Complete with design updates and more features, the latest Alto K10 is looking to build on its record sales numbers.
The Alto 800 and Alto K10 have been power players in the domestic car market in India. Over 43 lakh units of the model have been sold since Alto was introduced here back in 2000.
2/9
The Alto 800 and Alto K10 have been power players in the domestic car market in India. Over 43 lakh units of the model have been sold since Alto was introduced here back in 2000.
The latest Alto K10 continues to derive power from a 1,000 cc petrol motor which is paired with a familiar five-speed MT and an AGS unit.
3/9
The latest Alto K10 continues to derive power from a 1,000 cc petrol motor which is paired with a familiar five-speed MT and an AGS unit.
There are some very significant design updates on the newest Alto K10, primarily on its face. The grille is now far bigger than before and has a honeycomb design pattern. The headlight units are smaller but sleeker and there are no provisions for fog light placement.
4/9
There are some very significant design updates on the newest Alto K10, primarily on its face. The grille is now far bigger than before and has a honeycomb design pattern. The headlight units are smaller but sleeker and there are no provisions for fog light placement.
The Alto continues to stand on 13-inch wheels and honeycomb pattern now also finds a place on the wheel cap.
5/9
The Alto continues to stand on 13-inch wheels and honeycomb pattern now also finds a place on the wheel cap.
The rear of the new Alto K10 gets reworked tail lights.
6/9
The rear of the new Alto K10 gets reworked tail lights.
The Alto K10 gets a seven-inch infotainment screen which is powered by SmartPlay Studio and comes complete with smartphone navigation. There are steering-mounted controls and a digital driver display. There is not much that has changed in terms of passenger space.
7/9
The Alto K10 gets a seven-inch infotainment screen which is powered by SmartPlay Studio and comes complete with smartphone navigation. There are steering-mounted controls and a digital driver display. There is not much that has changed in terms of passenger space.
The Alto K10 remains a very familiar car to drive with its K-series engine giving it a whole lot of spunk.
8/9
The Alto K10 remains a very familiar car to drive with its K-series engine giving it a whole lot of spunk.
While there is a lot of body roll still, the AGS option continues to make big sense in a car that would primarily do city rounds.
9/9
While there is a lot of body roll still, the AGS option continues to make big sense in a car that would primarily do city rounds.

Also Read : Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara SUV review: Drives clean, plays dirty, stands tall

Srivastava added that the hatchback market used to fluctuate between 45-46% of the total passenger vehicles market for the last five years whereas in 2021, it dipped about 38 per cent whereas SUVs with 40 per cent of the overall market share became the largest-selling segment. However, in terms of absolute volume, Srivastava said the small-car segment is still pretty large. "Roughly if you look at the last fiscal's full-year volume of about 30.7 lakh, 40 per cent of that is hatch. It was just under 12 lakh last year. The market for SUVs last year was 12.3 lakh. So, there is not a very large difference in terms of volumes," he said.

Commenting on why Maruti Suzuki is so bullish on the small-car segment, Srivastava said that the country's projected economic growth for the future propelling the requirement for transportation, a young population and a stream of youth coming into the workforce every year act as favourable factors. “We are still not a high GDP per capita country where people straight away go into a large car or a high price car," he added.

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He added that the affordability factor of vehicles have come down with prices of the vehicles going up due to various factors such as compliance of new regulations like emission and safety norms, increase in commodity prices and addition of new features to the cars.

First Published Date: 18 Sep 2022, 15:30 PM IST
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