Maruti Suzuki saw India’s potential long before it became small car central, and is the undisputed market leader in the country of 1.18 billion people. However, homegrown brands and big players like Hyundai are beginning to chip at Maruti’s market share, which has fallen below 50% for the first time ever. It sold 282,488 units from April-July 2010, which is 47.68% of the total market. This is down from 53.13% (440,069 units) achieved in the same period last year.
The downward trend might be reversed come next quarter. This is because the company has boosted its large lineup with a CNG range and the A-Star automatic. Named after the 2008 concept, the latter is what we know as the Suzuki Alto (Alto name is reserved for the fifth-gen Alto, India’s most popular car). Previously only available in manual form, the A-Star auto pairs a 4-speed auto ‘box to the 60 bhp/90 Nm K-series engine. It’s essentially identical to our RM49,888 Alto GLX – so it’s surprising that we got an Indian made car a week earlier than India itself.
Maruti also just introduced compressed natural gas (CNG) tech featuring “intelligent-Gas Port Injection” or i-GPI on five popular models – SX4, Eeco, WagonR, Estilo and Alto. Maruti says that i-GPI cars are safer and offer more power than retrofitted CNG vehicles. All i-GPI cars go through the same quality checks, processes and systems as any car manufactured at Maruti Suzuki plants and get full warranty plus official after sales back up. The CNG cars are about RM3,000 costlier than the normal versions.
i-GPI is a Dual ECU tech that delivers accurate amounts of gas to the engine via separate injectors for each cylinder. Metered CNG quantity is injected into the engine through gas ports, controlled by a dedicated ECU. Each i-GPI model goes through 200,000 km real world tests in addition to over 3,000 hours of bench tests.
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They are having trouble selling their cars domestically. That’s why we got a chance to see Alto launched here in our country Malaysia.
like what sort of trouble please elobrate?
Oversupply at India, so they send it to Malaysia first.
Its has nothing about oversupply la…
There are two different models…
One is meant for export the other is for domestic market….
Cheers
I wish Perodua can respond to such customer service. Please see link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-2Y4dAIhww
We’re not seeing the full story, only one half of it.
model2 yg semakkan jalan raya.
When I was in Nepal, the taxi were all Maruti Suzuki – those tiny cars that zip in and out of the massive traffic mess in Kathmandu. Most of the taxi drivers are hell drivers but those tiny little cars handle very well in such horrible traffic conditions. They are about the size of our Kancil but their performance I think is much better – no body roll at corners – neither do they under steer – very impressive little fellows. So I believe the new Suzuki Alto must be much better in handling. I wait for it to reach our shore.
The Suzuki Alto is already on our shores
Will Suzuki bring in CNG cars into M’sia ???
If yes, i will buy one..
i prefer Suzuki-Maruti Ritz..nice and cute…bigger than Alto…Suzuki suppose to bring this Ritz to compete with Myvi…and people will get more choice rather than myvi…..
I’ve just had a look at maruti ritz after you mentioned it.. haha.. yeah it does really look very much like myvi.. but is it as big as the myvi ?
interesting find :)
based on my eyes, it’s slightly small compare to myvi..or else is it due to myvi got big ass? huhu
best seller in some country
the reason why maruti lost market share is not because their sales have gone down but because others are selling more.
in less than a year the small cars (hatchbacks) models and variants have become four times
seen the launches of Skoda fabia, Fiat Grande punto, hyundai i10, hyundai i20, chevrolet beat, vw polo, honda jazz, and of course the new best seller among premiums after the suzuki swift the Ford Figo, and except the honda jazz and chevrolet beat all have diesel variants.
among the locals the Indica Vista(3rd gen indica) has also done extremely well.
and less than a month ago the nissan micra was launched
And Proton wants to go into the India market.
Better think 3 times cos the competition there is tough.
Doubt if they can compete with the big boys.
Good luck !!
Suzuki Alto is a world wide selling car. Its engine is full alluminum (new type). Rear seat can be fully fold until flat. Wider, rigid with solid door close sound. Nice design look for both front & rear. Release alarm offer in 2 types of feature: The 1st press button only open the driver side door lock; The 2nd press button is to open the all 4 doors lock. This provide a better security to the car owner. Lower car loan interest rate than National car. Fully imported (not local assembly). If compare with Elite Viva in terms of pricing just a few k different. Can use many years just like the old old Suzuki Vitara car that running on the road or construction site. Alto is 125mm wider than Viva.