Maruti Suzuki Ertiga in India Archives

November 20, 2012

Ertiga’s Effects Enables Maruti to Scale New Heights

The utility vehicle section in the Indian market is rising continuously, and the country’s biggest passenger auto manufacturer Maruti is one of the chief recipients.

With the introduction of renowned Maruti Ertiga, the company devised the mini crossover multi purpose vehicles section in the domestic market, and never looked backward.

The 7 seater vehicle made such an impact that the company is contending to plug the demand-supply space in spite of running at jam-packed capacitance.

Creating the biggest triumph tale of 2012, Maruti Ertiga comes in both versions comprising petrol and turbo diesel engine.

During September and October 2012, the auto major beat back Toyota to turn out to be the second biggest utility vehicle seller in the Indian market.

But, taking into account the initial seven months’ sales facts, Toyota is still leading Maruti but the ever growing demand for the Ertiga entails that Maruti has a positive chance of hitting Toyota to the second position.

Indian utility vehicle specialist Mahindra has secured its numero uno place because of the sturdy demand for its utility vehicles particularly for the newly rolled out Quanto mini sport utility vehicle. But, M&M’s market share has declined to around 47.5 per cent as compared to the last year’s 56.5 per cent.

Maruti’s market share remains at 15.4 pr cent as compared to 2.1 per cent in the year 2011. In the similar period, Toyota’s share fell slightly (by 0.5 per cent) and stands at 17.5 per cent.

Healthy sales of Renault Duster positioned the French car maker at fourth position in utility vehicle section.

Mr. Mayank Pareek, chief operating officer (sales & marketing), Maruti Suzuki stated, “The firm is desiring to take the utility vehicle tale beyond Ertiga in the coming times”, suggesting the mini sport utility vehicle based on the XA Alpha idea exhibited at 2012’s Delhi Auto Expo.

May 29, 2012

Honda Motors to launch Mini MPV by 2014 in India

Honda Motors is all set to launch the Honda Mini MPV, which promises to accommodate your whole family along withyour entire luggage. Suzuki has reason to worry as this company till recently had been dominating this segment with the Suzuki Ertiga. There was absolutely no competition for Suzuki in this inventive segment, but Honda has gone ahead and has succeeded in putting a spanner in the “works” of Suzuki.

It would be noteworthy mention here that Suzuki managed a whopping 32,000 bookings within the first month of the launch of its Ertiga MPV. The Maruti Suzuki Ertiga is modeled on the lines of the Swift. Incidentally the Suzuki Ertiga is exclusively for Indian markets only.

The Honda Mini MPV which has been designed on a platform akin to the Concept S, displayed at the recently concluded Beijing Auto Show, will first be launched in China first and then make its way to India for a grand launch.Cars like the Honda Mini MPV are ideally suited for countries like China and India due to the huge population factor and hence the manufacturing decision of a global platform.

Honda will also be introducing a 1.6 liter diesel engine for its sedan class of cars which include the Honda Civic and City. The new Honda Mini MPV will have an extra seating row with a much spacious boot space. The car is expected to be launched in India by 2014.

May 22, 2012

Honda Jazz based MPV to challenge the Ertiga

Indian auto market is flooding with MPVs. Almost every major automotive manufacturer in the country, is offering a compact crossover for the Indian market. This is because the compact crossover segment has seen a growth of 15 percent in past five years. The segment dominator, Toyota Innova has some new threats like the Mahindra Xylo and newly launched Maruti Ertiga. Receiving over 32,000 bookings in one month from launch, the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga is expected to be the biggest rival in this category. Gladly, the Ertiga MPV won’t be the last seven-seat MPV to feature decent packaging, excellent reliability and a reasonable price tag. The Japanese automaker, Honda is planning to bring an Ertiga rival based on the Jazz hatch platform.

Though Honda is not doing wonders in terms of sales figures, it certainly has built up a great repo in the Indian market with decent petrol cars. So it does not come as a big shock if the Japanese automaker plans to stretch its fabulous hatch into an MPV. Honda Jazz is first of hatchbacks offered by Honda in India. Featuring class leading cabin space and a powerful petrol engine, the Honda Jazz sets the bar pretty high for hatchbacks.

Honda offers a longer wheelbase Jazz, called Freed for the South East Asian markets. Come 2014, Honda could launch the next-gen Freed, coded 2NH to battle against the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga in Indian market.

Coming as a 7 and 8 seat MPV, the Freed features Honda’s Man Maximum-Machine Minimum design philosophy, sitting at just 4.2 meters. So the next-gen Freed will presumably set the bar pretty high in terms of interior space and comfort. Powering the Freed MPV is a 1.5-liter iVTEC petrol unit. Transmission options include a CVT transmission and a five-speed automatic transmission.

If the next-gen Freed makes it to India, the lack of diesel engine could turn out miserable for the Honda MPV. We had recently reported Honda working on EarthDreams technology, to develop small capacity turbocharged diesel engines featuring top-notch fuel-efficiency, torque and low emission figures. This could make up for the diesel option of the next-gen Freed when it comes to our shores.

May 21, 2012

Maruti Suzuki Ertiga exploring options to meet huge demand

Even as the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga opened to a record booking of 30,000 cars in its very first month of launch, the waiting period for the consumers has shot up by 6 months.

The Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, which seats seven people, is ideal for commercial use and 70% of the bookings are for the diesel variant of this model. The problem arises with the waiting period. It is strange that the experts who had studied the market did not anticipate this huge demand. The problem is compounded by the fact the Gurgaon plant can only produce 6,000 units a month of this LUV. Maruti is exploring all options to meet this demand head on or will most certainly loose out to its competition.

The prices will almost certainly go up with the Rupee depreciating to record lows. The manufacturers had announced during the launch that the price for the first bookings had a timeline to it.

January 6, 2012

Maruti Suzuki Ertiga finally comes out of secrecy

It finally happened! Curtains were lifted off the much awaited Ertiga MPV that Maruti Suzuki was promising to the auto lovers for the past few months. With the unveiling of the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, the Indian auto giant is looking to make its mark in the utility vehicle segment of the Indian auto market. It is already the market leader as far as the small car segment is concerned.

The Maruti Suzuki Ertiga will be made available in both diesel and petrol variants. The diesel variant will come with the much reliable 1.3 liter multijet engine with an output of 88PS @4000rpm and a peak torque of 200Nm @1750rpm. On the other hand, the petrol variant of the Ertiga will be powered by a 1.4 liter engine with a capacity of 94PS @6000rpm and a peak torque of 130Nm @4000rpm.

Maruti Suzuki Ertiga images gallery

At the first glance, any one with some bit of car knowledge will be able to figure out that the Ertiga is based on the R-III concept that Maruti showcased at the 2010 Auto Expo. But the looks and design features of the Ertiga is surely a breath of fresh air for all auto lovers. Maruti seems to have taken an all-new approach while designing this vehicle. It is expected to have a mileage of around 10-12 kmpl, but exact mileage figures are not known yet.

The inside of the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga is quite spacious keeping with its MPV tag. It can comfortably seat 7 passengers in its three rows. The seats of the middle and the rear rows can be folded to make more space for luggage. The dashboard is quite similar to Swift, but will have a tinge of beige on it.

On the outside, the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga has quite pronounced shoulders with an integrated spoiler. This car will hit the market around March 2012. So if you are an Ertiga lover, you’ll have to wait for a couple of months more.

Maruti Suzuki Ertiga : Full Review