Maruti Suzuki Will Launch More Diesel Cars

Published: Friday, February 3, 2012, 18:44 [IST]

Customer Is King and Maruti Suzuki has realized it has to satisfy customer needs if it has to maintain its position as the country's leading carmaker. It has announced plans to launch several new diesel cars considering the huge demand for such cars.

Maruti Suzuki has seen its market share fall sharply in 2011 as the industry suffered a slow down and demand for Maruti Suzuki's petrol cars dipped. In fact this is the first time Maruti Suzuki's market share is below 40%. The carmaker has noticed that sales of its models with diesel variants have increased while it is only the cars with just petrol engines that are suffering.

Looking more closely, the ratio of bookings of the Swift, you will notice that about 80 per cent of the bookings received are for the diesel variant. A similar ratio can be seen in the Ritz as well as the SX4.

Explaining the future plan of action for the company Maruti Suzuki's Managing Director and Chief Executive Shinzo Nakanishi said that customer preference was fast shifting towards diesel cars and the only way forward was to have more diesel cars in the line-up. The carmaker has a current production capacity to build 3 lakh diesel engines per year and will be buying one lakh diesel engines from Fiat.

Maruti Suzuki is not the only carmaker to increase diesel car production. Ford has announced it would develop new diesel engines for India. Renault has only launched the diesel variant of the Pulse hatchback considering the customer preference.

The diesel cars currently sold by Maruti Suzuki are the Swift, Swift DZire, Ritz and SX4.