The Hindu Business Line : Maruti's `Swift' launch next year, says Khattar

MARUTI Udyog Ltd (MUL) has lined up a new hatchback car, Swift, for the Indian market and will launch it next year to compete with Fiat's Palio and the recently launched Hyundai Getz.

"The new car would be fitted with a 1.3 litre engine and would be launched in financial year 2005-06. It will be a hatchback. We are continuously working on other models that will be launched in the coming years," the MUL Managing Director, Mr Jagdish Khattar, told reporters here on Thursday.

Mr Khattar did not share details on pricing or when exactly the new car would be launched. Stating that the company had logged a 19 per cent growth in sales in the first half of the current fiscal, Mr Khattar said that all models from the Maruti stable had picked up sales, pushing up its market share from 53 per cent to 54 per cent.

"We have a 54 per cent market share despite the fact that at present we do not compete in the diesel segment, which now makes up 19 per cent of the total cars sold in the country," he said.

Mr Khattar said that while Maruti's focus was still on small cars, its two offerings in the `C' segment - Baleno and Esteem - had seen a dramatic rise in sales in the last three months.

"In the `C' segment, our share has jumped from 9 per cent last year to 18 per cent now. From 200-300 units of Baleno, post localisation and a new variant launch, we are selling nearly 800 units now. Similarly, after the new Esteem was launched, sales have jumped three-fold from about 800 units a month and the company has been forced to ramp up production to clear backlog," he said.

The chief executive of the country's largest carmaker said Maruti would not phase out any model in the near future. The company had no plans to stop producing its bread and butter model, Maruti 800, which has seen its sales drop in recent months with its sister model Alto being promoted by the company as an alternative entry-level car.

"There is no question of phasing out the (Maruti) 800. We believe in Dr C.K. Prahalad's philosophy of finding value at the bottom of the pyramid and the effort is to increase penetration. We are targeting new customer segments through our schemes for two-wheeler owners and teachers. We feel there is a great demand for the model and as long as customers want the car, why should we stop its production," Mr Khattar said.

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