Maruti Suzuki introduces all new Swift hatchback

Maruti Suzuki India Limited, India's largest car manufacturer unveiled its much awaited sportier and stylish car, the all new 'Swift'.







The new Swift offers best in class acceleration, high power to weight ratio and much improved fuel efficiency. With over 140 new features, many for the first time ever in an entry level variant, the new Swift is set to once again redefine "premium compact" car segment, a segment that Swift had itself created.

The new Swift is built on an all new platform and is longer and wider than its predecessor.







Maruti Suzuki engineers have adopted several new weight reduction techniques for an enhanced power to weight ratio in the new Swift. As a result, while new Swift delivers a power-packed and sportier drive, it also offers more kilometers to every drop of fuel: 6 per cent more in diesel and 4 per cent more in the petrol version. In addition, the Company has introduced the VVT engine technology in all petrol variants of the new Swift. The highly acclaimed DDiS engine powers the diesel variant of the new Swift.

Maruti Suzuki and its suppliers have invested over Rs. 550 Crore to make the new Swift more vibrant and sportier. The next generation Swift comes with a localization level of over 95 per cent.

The Swift is iconic and special in many ways. It entered the Indian car market and became a segment reference point, a blockbuster, by selling over 600,000 units in 6 years making it by far the highest selling car in the premium compact segment.

Maruti Suzuki is confident that with the new Swift the company will further strengthen and expand its position in the premium hatchback segment.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Shinzo Nakanishi, Managing Director and CEO, Maruti Suzuki said, "We have launched the new Swift at a time when there was significant demand for the outgoing model. In keeping with the Swift's iconic status, we had to ensure that the brand continues to offer the latest and the best in terms of features, design, performance and aspiration. I am confident that the new Swift will create new benchmarks with its improved fuel efficiency, stylish & sportier looks and high performance."

Maruti Suzuki A-Star touches One-lakh mark

Maruti Suzuki successfully rolled out its 1,00,000th A-Star model on Tuesday from the Manesar plant. The Manesar plant which also manufactures Maruti Suzuki models like SX4, Swift and Swift DZire crossed manufacturing 5-lakh units since its establishment.

This milestone was achieved by Maruri Suzuki in less than two weeks after the car behemoth made a breakthrough of manufacturing more than 80 Lakh units of the car since 1983.

"A-Star is doing very well in the export market. We are planning to export over 75,000 units of the car by the end of this fiscal," Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R C Bhargava said.

He also added that the Japanese car major Nissan had increased the order of the small car to 54,000 units for this fiscal from 30,000 units.

Nissan sells the A-Star under the brand name Pixo in the European market.

"At one stage Nissan was very hesitant to place order and they had reduced it from 50,000 units, which they were discussing with us. Now the total A-Star export will cross 1.3 lakh units in 2009-10," Bhargava added.

India number one car maker Maruti Suzuki has already exported over 50,000 units of A-Star to over 44 countries including Netherlands, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Angola, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Morocco, Libya, New Zealand and some Latin American nations. The making of this small car started in October, 2008.

Hyundai India to roll out diesel-powered i20 on July 7, 2009

Byoyed by the overwhelming response of the petrol-driven Hyundai i20 in the domestic market, Hyundai India is going a step ahead by launching its diesel variant on 7th July, 2009.

Likely to be fitted with a 1.4L common-rail diesel engine, the new variant is likely to be around 15-20 per cent pricier than the petrol-powered super-hatch, but will offer better fuel economy and improved drivability mainly due to the diesel engine’s higher torque output compared to the petrol.

Unconfirmed media reports also suggest that with the introduction of i20 diesel, Hyundai will also launch the 1.4L petrol version, to be available with an automatic transmission. It is to be mentioned that in the international market, Hyundai already sells i20 with 1.4 lire and 1.6 litre diesel engines.

Bringing Hyundai i20 with 1.4 litre diesel engine will qualify the company for the small car excise norms. However, the official company spokesperson refuses to comment on the engine specifications and other details. Once launched it would be pitted against Ford Fusion, the diesel versions of Maruti Swift & Ritz, Skoda Fabia, Fiat Grande Punto et al.



In India, the Hyundai i20 has managed to buck the trend and is still driving up volumes for the company. Even though the company had priced the i20 at Rs. 4.79 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), its bookings have exceeded the company’s expectations, thus propelling the company to ramp up its production. Though it could not be official confirmed, but sources have revealed that Hyundai India has increased its output from 1,000 units/ month to roughly 1,500-2,000 units per month.

Hyundai, which already has a market share of slightly more than 20 per cent in the passenger cars segment in India, is looking at scaling it up its market share to over 25 per cent by 2012. And for that, it is firming up plans to roll out new products in India, in order to strengthen and expand its portfolio of cars here.

Maruti to launch Ritz on May 15

Maruti Suzuki on Saturday said it will be launching its premium compact car Ritz on May 15 in Delhi in straight competition with its other premium compact car Swift.

"Ritz will directly compete with Swift. In the past, when we have launched cars in the same segment, it has helped the market to grow," Maruti Suzuki's managing executive officer, I V Rao, told reporters here.

"With the launch of Ritz, our customers would have two cars to choose from in the same category," he said.

Ritz and Swift would compete with Fabia, Getz, UVA and i20. Swift has been estimated to have a market share of 75% in the compact car segment.

In the next couple of years, seven new cars are being planned to be launched in the compact car segment by various car makers.

Swift, launched four years ago, has been a successful product of Maruti. At present, Maruti sells about 10,000 Swifts a month, Rao said.

The company has put up a new assembly line for Ritz at its factory in Gurgaon.

Last year, Maruti launched Swift in the European market. It makes Swift at a plant in Hungary.

Carmakers offer gifts and gold to lure customers

It’s raining gold in the car market. Fighting sluggish market conditions, carmakers are offering diamonds sets, gold coins & chains, silver plates and MP3 music systems to lure customers into their showrooms before the festive season.

Traditionally, festive season has meant free insurance covers and auto accessories for buyers. However, this time around, carmakers such as Hyundai Motors and Ford India are offering precious metals to attract female customers and new buyers. Hyundai Motor India (HMI) is offering a free gold coin with its entire range (except i10 AT and Getz 1.5L CRDi) and an MP3 player with the Verna sedan range and the 1.1L & 1.3L Getz hatchback cars.

HMI managing director HS Lheem said: “We are offering these gifts as part of our successful decade-long operations in India. Besides, with these valuable offerings, we’re making Hyundai products very attractive for our customers.”

While Ford Motors India, which recently gave a facelift to Fiesta, is now offering Tanishq diamonds worth Rs 20,000 with every Fiesta. It has also started special offers including cash incentives for corporate and public sector buyers.

Car sales have nosedived in the past two months after a three year-long growth drive. While sales grew 3% in July, August saw a 1.71% dip year-on-year. To fight the slowdown, other companies are taking different routes to tap the market. Maruti Suzuki India has launched special incentives to attract over 25.4 lakh employees from the insurance, banking and retail sector with additional discounts of Rs 17,000 on SX4, Rs 5,000 on M800 & Alto, Wagon R, Estilo and Rs 4,500 on Swift (petrol version).

“It is a tough time and we are concentrating on non-core markets. Banks, financial institutions and insurance companies make up a big market, but still remain tapped. We are directly giving cash discounts to customers in place of tangibles,” a senior executive of Maruti said.

American auto major General Motor has also followed the similar path offering huge cash discounts. The highest cash rebate of Rs 58,000 comes on the Spark compact car, followed by Rs 46,000 on Tavera multi-utility vehicles. Other pre-Diwali offers include Rs 28,000 discount on Optra Magnum sedan along with a 4-5% interest waiver on all loan deals.

Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) has plunged into the discount market for the first time and has waived 50% insurance premium on its popular City and Civic sedans, besides offering comprehensive warranty and service packages to the customers.

Compact car ‘A Star’ is born

Maruti Suzuki is all set to launch its much-awaited next generation ‘K’ series engine that will be introduced in all its cars in India in the next three to five years. It will also be critical for the success of Japanese Suzuki Motor Corporation’s future strategic global models.

Being seen as a “generational change” in Suzuki’s engine technology, the ‘K’ series engine will be rolled out from Maruti Suzuki’s new engine plant at its Manesar (Gurgaon) complex next month. Apart from being Euro IV and Euro V-compliant, the new engine will be highly fuel-efficient that will be first introduced in soon-to-be-launched global car ‘A Star’.

Both Suzuki and its Indian subsidiary Maruti are banking heavily on its compact world car ‘A Star’ that will be equipped with new one-litre petrol engine. Japanese carmaker Suzuki hopes that the “green engine” would give it a strong foothold in the European markets. And for Maruti Suzuki, the new compact car would help further consolidate its position in the Indian car market and prove to be a timely answer to other newer products being launched by its competitor in the fast growing Indian automobile market.

The new engine holds much significance for Suzuki whose Chairman O. Suzuki, is on a three-day trip to India from Monday. He will also be visiting the new engine facility, that is part of the Rs. 9,000-crore investment being made by Suzuki Motor Corporation in India, and discuss the company’s future strategy vis-a-vis the ‘K’ series engine with Maruti’s top management. Mr. Suzuki would also preview ‘A Star’ at the Manesar (Gurgaon) assembly plant that is undergoing capacity expansion to reach three-lakh units.

‘A Star’ will make its India debut within a few weeks and then enter the European market early next year. While its one-lakh units would be exported to Europe, 50,000 units will be sold in the domestic market.

Currently, Maruti Suzuki has five types of engines used in its different models. The F-series engines in the Maruti 800, Omni, Wagon R and Zen Estillo, the G-series (two variants) in the Swift, Dzire, Esteem and Versa, the M-series in the SX4, and the K-series in the ‘A Star’.

Diesel powers India’s car sales growth

THE markets may be gripped by fears of an economic slowdown and the government by inflation worries, but the Indian consumer’s love affair with automobiles shows no sign of ending. Despite rising fuel prices, India’s automobile sales grew 8.09 per cent in May, 2008, according to data released by industry body the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Passenger car sales in the domestic market jumped 14.26 per cent, while total two wheeler sales were up by seven per cent during the month. With the price difference between petrol and diesel going up further, the sale of diesel cars is expected to accelerate vis- à- vis the petrol versions. According to industry sources, the current ratio of car sales in models such as the Swift that is available both in diesel and petrol variant is 60: 40. This means that out of every 100 units of Swift sold 60 are powered by diesel engines, while 40 are petrol versions. Sources disclosed that in the case of Maruti's Dzire the diesel version accounts for nearly 80 per cent of sales while the petrol variant makes up 20 per cent. The new generation diesel engines are a vast improvement over the older ones, which were prone to heavy vibrations and were also noisier.

Ford Motor Company, for instance, has started registering a sharp increase in car sales after it introduced its latest diesel models. The fact that technology is an important factor is reflected in the fact that Tata Motors has reported flat growth even though the company mainly markets diesel models. The company sold 14,228 units in May this year compared to 14,217 units in the same month last year. Mahindra & Mahindra (M& M) has reported a12.98 per cent increase in domestic sales during May at 19,296 units, up from 17,079 units in the same month last year which also goes to show the increasing popularity of diesel vehicles. The company mainly produces SUVs although it has introduced the Logan car recently as part of a joint venture with Renault.

Diesel is Rs 15.76 per litre cheaper than petrol in Delhi and modern diesel engines also give higher mileage per litre than petrol engines, which brings down the running cost of diesel cars even further. However, diesel engines normally cost more to maintain than petrol engines. Each time the government raises the price of transport fuels, the price of petrol goes up more than that of diesel, as a result of which the gap has been widening over the years. The reason is that petrol is still perceived as a rich mans fuel while diesel, which is used in the farm and public transport sectors, is considered politically sensitive.

According to sources, diesel cars have a20 per cent market share in India at present. However, diesel as a vehicular fuel comes in for some criticism from environmental groups on the ground that it is more polluting than petrol. But the car companies claim that modern diesel engines emit less carbon dioxide than petrol engines and the emissions are less harmful. Both Maruti and Hyundai have also introduced alternative fuel options such as LPG and CNG this month in anticipation of some buyers opting for these models as these are cheaper to run than the petrol versions.

Hyundai too raising car prices as input costs mount

HYUNDAI Motor India Ltd ( HMIL), the Indian arm of the Korean automobile maker, on Wednesday said it would raise the prices of its products by up to two per cent from the first week of June.



“There has been an increase in the input costs and we have been absorbing it for a while. The situation now is such that we have to pass some parts of it to the consumers,” Hyundai Motor India Ltd senior vice president marketing and sales Arvind Saxena said. He said the company will hike the prices of its various models by up to two per cent. “The price increase will come into effect from the first week of June,” he added.

Hyundai currently sells hatchback models Santro, i10, Getz along with sedans Accent, Verna, Sonata Embera in the country. The companys move to hike prices follows rival Maruti Suzuki India Ltd ( MSIL), which last week hiked prices across various models by between Rs 1,000 and Rs 18,000.

Maruti had hiked the prices of all its petrol variants — the hatchback Swift, sedan SX4 and the Gypsy — by Rs 9,000, while the price of the diesel version of Swift was raised by Rs 15,000. It had also increased the price of all variants of Zen Estilo and WagonR LPG by Rs 1,000 and of Alto and M800 by Rs 1,500.

Prices of all variants of Omni and WagonR Petrol were hiked by Rs 2,000 and that of multi- utility vehicle (MUV) Versa by Rs 8,000. Earlier, in January, Hyundai Motor India had raised the prices of all its models by between two to three per cent.

Swift sales shoot up to 2 lakh units

COUNTRY'S largest car maker Maruti Suzuki’s runaway success with Swift has crossed a new milestone in sales — two lakh units — with the car becoming one of the fastest selling models in India since its launch three years ago to achieve this feat.

Maruti Swift has attained new benchmarks very swiftly. It has emerged as the fastest selling car in India by completing the two- lakh units sales mark in less than 36 months, a company official said.

The company launched this premium hatchback in petrol variant on May 25, 2005. In its first year of launch, it clocked sales of 61,200 units. The popularity of petrol version inspired the company to launch a diesel variant in January last year.

Maruti hikes prices of its models as input costs rise

INDIA'S largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, on Monday raised prices of most of its models to offset the rising cost of inputs such as steel.

The price hike ranges from Rs 1,000 on the Zen Estilo and Wagon R hatchback to Rs 18,000 on its sedan Swift Dzire. The company had launched the Swift Dzire sedan with an introductory price ranging from Rs 4.49 lakh to Rs 6 lakh across different variants, which has now been withdrawn, a Maruti dealer said.

Maruti has also hiked the prices of all petrol variants of hatchback Swift, SX4 and Gypsy by Rs 9,000, while the price of the diesel version of Swift has been raised by Rs 15,000. It has also increased the price of all variants of Zen Estilo and WagonR LPG by Rs 1,000 and of Alto and M800 by Rs 1,500.

Prices of all variants of Omni and WagonR Petrol have also been hiked by Rs 2,000 and that of multi- utility vehicle Versa by Rs 8,000. The price increases, which spared the Grand Vitara SUV, came into effect at the weekend, he said.

Maruti's managing director, Shinzo Nakanishi, had said in April that the car maker was negotiating with steel companies on new contracts, for which it faced up to a 40 per cent price increase. Earlier, Maruti had cut prices of some of its models, after the government reduced excise duty on small cars.