Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, is gearing up to strengthen its SUV portfolio with the launch of its latest offering, the Victoris. Positioned between the Brezza and the Grand Vitara, the Victoris will be retailed exclusively through Maruti’s Arenadealerships and will take rivals like the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos. The company has set its sights firmly on a leadership position in the mid-size SUV market, one of the most competitive and fastest-growing segments in India.
“We have a very strong entry SUV. Mid SUV will be much bigger. We are positioning Victoris to the young Indian customer which happens to be one third of the Indian population, and are aspiring for leadership in the mid SUV segment. We are already the market leader in the entry SUV space,” said Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer for Marketing and Sales at Maruti Suzuki.
While SUVs today account for nearly 55% of the overall passenger vehicle market, Banerjee acknowledged the recent slowdown for the company. “What we have seen in the month of July, the SUV segment, there was a degrowth. We saw that for the first time. But fundamentally the point is this, the SUV today is now close to almost 55%. We see an opportunity keeping in mind the young Indian customers,” he said.
At present, SUVs contribute around 28% to Maruti Suzuki’s overall sales. The company dominates the entry-SUV segment with the Brezza, but Banerjee admitted that the Arena channel lacked a mid-size SUV. “In Arena Channel, we did not have a mid-size SUV. So we are missing big opportunity of sales in Arena Channel. In Nexa we have the Fronx and the Grand Vitara. In Arena we have Brezza, which are very successful. But we are missing the sales opportunity of mid-size SUV segment. Which is a big market,” he adds.
According to Banerjee, the mid-size SUV segment is nearly 40% of the SUV market, translating to about 9 lakh units annually, compared to a relatively flat entry-SUV segment at around 3.5 lakh units.
Multiple Powertrain Choices
A key part of the Victoris’ strategy will be its powertrain diversity. “Our endeavour is always to serve the customers by providing all transmissions for all cars. Hybrid we are seeing a good traction. But obviously we don’t push for a particular technology to our customers. We believe that based on the needs of the customer, whichever variant, whichever transmission they would like to go for it, we try to do that,” he said.
The Victoris S-CNG features a factory-fitted setup with a segment-first underbody fuel tank and it also comes with a Strong Hybrid powertrain option. Banerjee added, “So we have got CNG also, we have got smart hybrid, we have got strong hybrid. So all options are there for us. We need to be technologically agnostic. We are having all the technologies. In terms of safety, we are now much, much ahead. We as a market leader believe that we need to offer everything to our customers. Let the customers decide, which option, which form we would like to deliver.”
While the immediate focus is on capturing the mid-size SUV crown, Maruti Suzuki is also evaluating a move into larger SUVs. “We are talking about bigger SUVs. I think in the market, there is some premiumization trend. And now, we are covering up to mid-size SUV, but then over 4.5-meter SUV has a decent market size. Definitely we have to have one in this segment. We are talking about this and we are studying the segment,” he remarked.