Maruti Suzuki has said that it has secured a 19 percent market share in the Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh vehicle category in FY2022-'23, making it the number one player in this segment. This puts Maruti ahead of its arch rivals like Hyundai India. The company also said that its market share has risen to 22 percent in the first quarter of FY24 (April-June 2023), thanks to more demand for its premium SUVs.
- Maruti currently has 61 percent market share in the sub-Rs 10 lakh category
- Market share in Rs 10 lakh-20 lakh segment quadrupled in last few years
- Maruti's Nexa outlets sold 3.7 lakh units in FY23
Maruti Suzuki has over 2 lakh pending SUV orders
The brand has traditionally been a small car specialist, and has over 61 percent segment share in the sub-Rs 10 lakh category. Speaking on the sidelines of the Invicto's launch event last week, Shashank Srivastava, executive director of Sales & Marketing at Maruti Suzuki India, told our sister publication Autocar Professional, "Whichever segment Maruti Suzuki enters into, it is able to create a mark, only the types of products and the consumers change. The company understands the Indian consumers well, and is able to break into a fresh and new customer base."
For Invicto – a vehicle priced between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh – Maruti Suzuki was able to gather a booking of over 6,800 units in the last few weeks. The company is sitting on an order book of over 2 lakh SUVs, predominantly in the Rs 10 lakh-20 lakh bracket. Its market share in this price segment has quadrupled in the last few years from 4-5 percent to 20-22 percent, and the big factor behind this is its range of new SUVs and MPVs that it has introduced since 2018. Not surprisingly, Maruti Suzuki is already the second largest player in the fast-growing SUV space, just a few hundred units behind Mahindra & Mahindra.
Multiple factors pushing the shift towards higher-priced vehicles
The shift towards higher-priced cars has been driven by rising commodity costs, road taxes, insurance pay out and increased features, and hence the average price of cars sold in India has breached Rs 9 lakh-10 lakh from an average of about Rs 6 lakh-7 lakh just three to five years ago.
"It is a fallacy or a myth that Maruti can't sell premium cars or SUVs or upgraders prefer other brands. Nexa, our premium channel, is set to be the second biggest automotive retailer [after Arena]. On a base of 3.7 lakh units in FY23, we have so far grown over 70 percent and the sales from Nexa are likely to cross about half a million units,” underscored Srivastava.
Regarding the Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh segment where the Invicto MPV is positioned, Srivastava said the segment accounts for 5-8 percent of the Indian passenger vehicle market and a majority of these customers are not first-time car buyers. Naturally, given the higher price tag, the share of first-time car buyers is very small in this segment, but there is a big chunk of replacement buyers.
Approximately 4-5 million SUVs are likely to be sold in India between 2020 to 2027, and experts reckon that this upgraded space of Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh will turn out to be the new battleground for automakers to fight for in the next five years.
Hormazd Sorabjee
Anurag Chaturvedi
