Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest carmaker, plans to sell approximately 500,000 vehicles in the current fiscal year 2023-2024 in order to maintain its lead in the country’s fast-growing sports utility vehicle market.
The company expects to more than double its volume in the segment thanks to the full-year availability of the midsize SUV Grand Vitara and the soon-to-be-launched compact SUVs Fronx and Jimny.
SUVs currently account for four out of every ten passenger vehicles sold in India. Due to high demand for these new models this year, Maruti Suzuki plans to boost its overall market share to 45% in FY24, up from 41% in FY23. As per reports the company has 194,000 pending orders for its SUV lineup, which includes the Brezza.
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According to Shashank Srivastava, Maruti Suzuki’s senior executive director (marketing and sales), “If supplies remain stable throughout the year, we should be able to reclaim the top spot in the SUV segment. Our market share was already 17.5% in the previous quarter. With the Grand Vitara available all year and two new cars set to arrive soon in the small SUV space, we might grow our market share to 25% in this category..
As many as 1.9 million SUVs are expected to be sold in the current fiscal year, representing a 19% increase over the 1.67 million units sold in FY23. By the end of the fiscal year, Maruti Suzuki intends to sell around 475,000 Fronx, Brezza, Jimny, and Grand Vitara vehicles.
Srivastava added “The sport utility vehicle (SUV) segment is now the most lucrative and accounts for approximately twenty percent of India's passenger car market”.
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The company anticipates that the share of SUVs will increase to 50% in the next 3-4 years. Following that, based on consumer patterns, in other markets throughout the world the company anticipates a plateau in the segment.