Maruti Suzuki has announced that they have increased production of its popular premium hatchback, the Baleno, in order to reduce waiting periods for the car.
The Baleno is the best-selling Nexa-retailed Maruti Suzuki model and had recently crossed the 4 lakh unit sales milestone in India. The model also regularly features on the monthly top 10 most sold cars list, with sales figures hitting 1,90,480 units in FY18 , a 58 percent increase over FY17’s 1,20,804 units.
A rival to the Honda Jazz (Rs 7.35-9.29 lakh) and the Hyundai i20 (Rs 5.41-9.22 lakh), the Baleno is available in four trims with petrol-manual (Rs 5.38-7.38 lakh), petrol-automatic (Rs 7.12-8.43 lakh) and diesel-manual (Rs 6.51-8.50 lakh) powertrain options. The 84hp, 1.2-litre petrol engine is mated to either a 5-speed manual or a CVT automatic, while the 75hp, 1.3-litre diesel solely gets a 5-speed manual.
The premium hatchback also has a sportier RS variant (Rs 8.47 lakh) which is powered by a 1.0-litre turbo-petrol motor that makes 102hp and 150Nm of peak torque.
The Baleno is exclusively manufactured in India and is the first car to be exported from India to Japan. The model is also sold markets such as Australia, Europe, Latin America and East Asia.
All prices ex-showroom, Delhi
Rivan RS 
Viraaj Bhatnagar
Uday Singh
Suraj Viswanathan
