The Hindu Business Line : Maruti hopes to cross half-million mark this year

MARUTI Udyog Ltd, the country's largest carmaker, expects to cross the half a million mark in sales this fiscal riding on the launch of new models including its latest New Look Maruti and Baleno by garnering a higher share in the A3 or C segment sedans.

The Director, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Udyog, Mr Kinji Saito, while refusing to divulge further information about new models, said that the launch of the New Esteem with attractive price range and offer of Baleno variants at lower price points would enhance the company's share in the C segment, and possibly take the overall sales past the 500,000 mark.

"For instance, last fiscal, we clocked overall sales of 4,20,000 cars in the domestic market and exported about 42,000 cars, thereby almost touching the 4.7 lakh mark, reflecting an overall growth of about 22 per cent over previous fiscal. With new models, we expect to cross the 500,000 sales mark," he said.

Announcing the launch of New Esteem in the Andhra Pradesh market, Mr. Saito said: "Maruti has taken a leadership position in the A and B segment cars and takes pride in growing the market significantly. Hitherto our presence in the A3 market was relatively less in comparison to the A and B segment cars. The performance and fuel efficiency of the Esteem are widely acknowledged. Now with a new external look there will be no reason for compact sedan customers to select any other brand."

"With regard to Alto models, there is about 3 week wait list due to production constraints. We are producing about 13,000 cars a month and of this about 5000 are being exported. We are in the process of firming up with vendors to further expand the production capacity, which we will able to deliver cars to the customers without wait-list," he said.