Country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India is planning to launch two new vehicles this year. With the introduction of the two new models, Maruti will be replacing the existing cars that are not selling quite well in its product lineup and the upcoming models will also help the company to regain the market share in the respective segment. The company covered nearly 45 percent of the market share in 2010-11 which drove down to 39 percent last year.
According to the reports from Livemint, the vehicle that was earlier codenamed as YL7 will be displayed during the 2014 Delhi Auto Expo. Two persons that are said to be closer to the development program has shared this information but has not agreed to reveal more about the upcoming cars. The new cars will be developed on the small car platform that is currently used by the company for its smaller cars. The new vehicles will be replacing Estilo and A-Star, both of which are not doing any good for the company. Other than that company still has the two leading names in the small car category, Alto and WagonR, which are still the market leaders in their respective segments in India.
Maruti Suzuki India is also planning to revoke its SX4 sedan from the market and will be replacing it with a new model that will be also based on the same platform. With the new car, that has been codenamed as YL1, the company is playing extremely cautious to mark its presence in the particular market segment. The segment has been currently leaded by Hyundai’s Verna, Honda City and Volkswagen Vento. However, company guys are still not opening up their mouths on the future and the strategy of the firm about the upcoming product.
The new small car segment is quite important for the Maruti as it currently holds about 51 percent of the share in that segment. However, small car sale has been declined by about 9.64 percent in 2012-13 mainly due to the sluggish economy and even Maruti witnessed a fall of about 5 percent.
The increased price of petrol has prompted the buyers to shift towards the diesel cars. (Diesel is currently 30 percent cheaper than the petrol).