Maruti Suzuki to Face Challenge Unless it Launches SUVs and MPVs

With the growing market share of SUVs and MPVs in the Indian automotive industry, India's largest car manufacture MSI believes that it will face a challenge in increasing or maintaining its market share unless some new vehicles are brought in the segment, says company's MD and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi.

Speaking to reporters, Nakanishi said,"The SUVs and multi-purpose vehicles segment has been growing very fast in India, but we are not growing there. We need to have a stronger presence there. Having just the Ertiga is not enough,"

Maruti Suzuki has been focusing on small cars, and it's been doing really well in these segments even when the market is not in a good shape, however Nakanishi accepts that the competition has been very tough. He further says that the 'Challenge for MSI' is to have a prominent presence in the SUV/MPVs segment to "increase or maintain its market share".

The company only has one vehicle in the segment Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, which is doing fantastic, but Ertiga alone cannot serve the purpose. "We have to bring some more models there", he said, however didn't disclose the what all vehicles the company is planning to bring in the segment. But one such vehicle will be the compact SUV XA Alpha, which was previewed at the 2012 Indian auto expo.

Speaking about the current slowdown and the future of the company in India he said, "At that time I didn't know India... but over the years we have grown here. Yes, the market is slow right now but in the long term, the auto industry and India have a bright future considering the country's economy, expected increase in per capita income and growth of middle class,". In fact, he believes that growth of auto industry is higher in India than Japan. "There (in Japan) the youngsters don't want to buy cars, they use the public transport system more. I hope it doesn't happen here (in India)," he added. 

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