Maruti Suzuki S-Cross sees strong sales growth

Maruti Suzuki’s crossover got a new lease of life with last year’s facelift; expansion of Nexa dealer network has also helped bring in more sales.

Published On Apr 23, 2018 08:00:00 AM

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Maruti Suzuki S-Cross sees strong sales growth

The S-Cross was not received as well as Maruti Suzuki would have originally liked but the crossover has seen a strong revival in demand in the last financial year. Maruti sold 30,923 units of the S-Cross in FY 2017-18, representing a solid 44.3 percent growth in sales over FY 2016-17. In FY 2015-16, the S-Cross found 24,077 buyers, though it must be noted that the model was only on sale for nine months during the period.

So what has worked for the S-Cross in the past year? Maruti Suzuki did bring out the S-Cross facelift and that’s one part of the growth story. The refreshed crossover brought with it a slightly more muscular look which helped the crossover’s appeal in a market where the SUV body style is considered most desirable. “The new S-Cross that was launched last October looks bold upfront which is being admired by our customers. We have also used a smart hybrid technology (SHVS) in the new model which has bettered the efficiency,” a spokesperson from Maruti said. Of course, some sales also came from buyers lured by discounts of Rs 75,000 on the pre-facelift car.

The other factor that has apparently helped the S-Cross’ sales turnaround is the expansion of Maruti Suzuki’s premium Nexa showroom network that retails the crossover. Maruti insiders say that taking the Nexa network to Tier 2 towns has helped widen the market for the S-Cross, and taken the product to areas where there is demand for it. Over the past year, Maruti Suzuki has added 64 Nexa outlets, taking the total count to 316 outlets in 178 cities.

Sales-wise, the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross is a distant second to the Hyundai Creta (107,136 units, up 10.53 percent) in the small SUV/crossover segment. However, Hyundai retails the Creta through 493 dealers (1,072 sales points) in 790 cities. The S-Cross did comfortably outsell the Renault Duster (14,112 units, down 25.52 percent), Honda BR-V (11,563 units, down 43.37 percent) and Nissan’s Terrano (2872 units, down 17.19 percent). The Renault Captur that was launched in November 2017 hasn’t set the box office afire either, with sales of 2,357 units sold till the end of the financial year. Interestingly, Renault, with 320 dealerships in 269 cities, comparatively has a wider presence than Maruti’s Nexa.

Models	2017-18 (units)	2016-17 (units)	Growth (percent)
Hyundai Creta	107,136	96,899	10.56%
Maruti Suzuki S-Cross	30,923	21,417	44.39%
Honda BR-V	11,563	20,417	-43.37%
Renault Duster	14,112	18,947	-25.52%
Renault Captur	2,357	0	N/A
Nissan Terrano	2,872	3,468	-17.19%