Maruti Suzuki India Ltd aims to acquire a 25% share of the swiftly amplifying sport utility vehicle (SUV) market, to focus on doubling its share by the end of the current fiscal year, this has been reported by a top executive of the company.
To achieve such a milestone, the company aims to magnify the sales of its SUV models which cost ₹10 lakh or greater and consolidate its brand stationing through its premium Nexa sales channel.
Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director of Maruti Suzuki said that “In FY22, our share in the SUV market was 10.2% and just over 12% in FY23. But if you look at each quarter in the last fiscal, our Q4FY23 SUV market share was 17% because of the addition of the Grand Vitara. So, we grew from 10.2% to 17%. So now we have to increase this 17% share to a fixed 25% for the whole year. Let’s say we will begin with 20% in Q1 of FY24 and go up to 27% in Q4 so that for the full year, we are at around 25% market share”.
Srivastava is expecting the SUV segment to count for about 47% of the 4.10 million passenger vehicles sold in the current fiscal year, with an estimated size of 1.9 million units. Maruti will have to sell about 475,000 SUVs to achieve this target.
The automaker is set to launch its latest crossover SUV Fronx in the month of May, continued by its urban lifestyle offering Jimny which an iconic Suzuki nameplate which will be supplied as a four-wheel drive. Maruti Suzuki sells Grand Vitara which is mid-SUV and Brezza which is compact SUVs in the market.
Maruti Suzuki’s plan of action is to secure a quarter of the SUV market and to become the biggest player in the segment, in order to beat its rivals Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors. It has acquired more than 16,000 bookings for the Fronx, and about 24,000 for the Jimny, which the company hopes will aide it to finally settle into a niche, lifestyle segment. Considering the Fronx pushing the majority of the volumes out of the two products, along with the Grand Vitara.
Srivastava said that “The thing with niche products like Jimny is that there is always a set of passionate customers who will just go and book at the first opportunity, whereas the Fronx is an absolutely new vehicle, and the brand proposition needs an explanation to the customers. And I would guess the positioning of the brand for Fronx is the bigger challenge than the Jimny, although the rewards in terms of volumes will be much higher”.
He explained that incremental bookings for Jimny after the first month have declined compared to Fronx, where bookings are current gaining momentum.
With its four SUV products, Maruti Suzuki will cover all major SUV sub-segments in the market, but it hopes for the formation of new sub-segments in these categories which have big markets, supposedly the mid-SUV segment.
Srivastava concluded with “We are covering the market in a good way. However, one interesting segment that’s emerging in the mid-SUV space is that of a three-row SUV, where some of our competitors have launched new products. We will examine and take a decision in the future, but right now, we are very focused on establishing these products”.
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