Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is expecting a slower growth in sales in the current financial year in the backdrop of the slowdown in the market. The growth in sales might drop to 8-9 per cent from 30 per cent in the last fiscal, which was one of the highest growth rates achieved by the company.
In April – June period, the company registered a marginal drop in sales. This was 22.4 per cent up in the same period of last financial year. In the quarter, the company sold 281,526 units, including exports of 30,843 cars, as against 283,324 units in April-June period of 2010-11. In June, sales dropped to 80,298 from 88,091 in the same month of last year.
Addressing a press conference in connection with the Kerala launch of the new Swift, Maruti Suzuki general manager and commercial business head (south) Manohar Bhat said the company had increased the production capacity of Swift to 17,000 -18,000 pieces monthly as it had a huge back log of orders for this variant.
The company unveiled the new Swift in Kerala market on Friday. The average monthly sale of Swift is 12,000 units and in Kerala this is 900-1,000 units. Swift has a market share of 30 per cent in this segment.
Maruti had invested over Rs 550 crore to make the new Swift more vibrant and sportier, he said. The next generation Swift comes with a localisation level of over 95 per cent.
The company sold 600,000 units of the model since its launch in May 2005. The new Swift is 90 mm longer than the older version and the wheel base is longer by 40 mm. It had reduced the weight of the car by 30 kg, that augments its fuel efficiency.
There will be six variants, three each in petrol and diesel, with an ex-showroom price varying from Rs 4.36 lakh to Rs 6.42 lakh. He added that the petrol variant would have fuel efficiency of 18.6 kmpl, and diesel with 22.9 kmpl.