Maruti Suzuki plans to shift focus from small cars to ‘high-end cars’

Maruti Suzuki has plans to shift focus from small cars to high-end cars as the market for small cars has been shrinking for the past four years.

Maruti Suzuki is planning to shift its focus from small, budget-friendly cars to more ‘high-end cars’ as the market for small cars is shrinking. Over the past four years, there has been a decline of 25 percent in the demand for hatchbacks. This speaks volumes about the current market trend and the shift in interests of the audience. Therefore, it is not wrong on Maruti’s side to look for more options and up its game by focusing more on the high-end car segment.

Maruti Suzuki India Chairman, Mr. R.C. Bhargava said, “Small cars used to be our bread and butter, but there is no butter in small cars anymore. We will have to change our strategy. People with limited income are getting squeezed out of the car market due to higher cost.” While speaking in a post-earning media call he added that the market for hatchbacks is “shrinking significantly”.

Meanwhile, the market for SUVs has grown at an exponential rate, and SUVs, MUVs, and compact cars are currently on-trend. The decline in small car sales is mainly due to higher commodity prices and taxes by state governments. Therefore, Bhargava too said that they will shift investments as per current market trends.Maruti has also confirmed its investment of 1.6 billion rupees to further increase the capacity of its Manesar plant in order to ramp up the production and an overall annual capacity of manufacturing. The company also announced in a recent statement that its net income has jumped to 18.4 billion rupees for three months versus 11.7 billion a year earlier.