Maruti Suzuki to strengthen SUV line-up to maintain dominance in PV segment

Maruti Suzuki India is looking to bolster its presence in the fast-growing SUV segment in order to maintain its dominance in the domestic passenger vehicle segment in the future, a senior company official told PTI. The company's market share in the domestic passenger vehicle segment has come down to 45 per cent this year from 48 per cent last year.

Thus, it is now looking to fill gaps in the various sub-segments that have emerged in the SUV space in the past few years. In the non-SUV segments, the company's market share has been going up in the last five years but in certain SUV sub-segments, it is lagging behind the competition. “Therefore, we are looking to strengthen our SUV portfolio," said Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director - Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki.

At present, the auto industry has 46 brands in the SUV segment and Maruti has two models of these - Brezza and S-Cross. "It means our portfolio needs strengthening and that is what we hope to do going forward," Srivastava stated.

He also highlighted that Maruti has been able to dominate the PV segment for the past 20 years despite an increase in the competition. However, the overall market share of Maruti this year has come down because the SUV segment has grown much faster. "Today, it is 38 per cent of the industry whereas it was 32 per cent last year. So, obviously it has an impact on us," he stated.

Srivastava elaborated that various sub-segments have emerged in the SUV space that have been growing at a robust pace such as lifestyle segment, entry SUV, mid-size SUV and high-end SUV categories. “Sub-segments have emerged and each segment is now large enough to get interested in, except the premium SUV that is less than one per cent of the market," he added.