Power play by Alto, i10

While Maruti has launched an upgraded engine for its best-seller, Hyundai plans a toned down version of its flagship model

Two of India’s largest selling cars – Alto and i10 – operate in different price segments, but they are now taking their fight for market leadership to another level.

The game plan is clear: both brands want to get into the other’s territory. So while Maruti Suzuki has come out with a new Alto with upgraded engine power, Hyundai is planning a lower-powered engine for its best-seller i10.

The Alto makeover
The new Alto K 10 will sport an upgraded 998 CC engine – the same as A-star, Zen Estilo and Wagon R. The model is priced at Rs 3.19 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai, Lxi variant). The engine will produce 68bhp of peak power (compared to 46bhp produced by the existing 800cc Alto).

Maruti’s move will bring cheer to those customers who thought the largest selling five-seater car was underpowered. Alto overtook M800 sales in 2004.

At present, the Alto’s top-end Lxi model contributes to 70 per cent of sales and competes with the Rs 2.7-lakh Hyundai Santro standard and the Chevy Spark that costs Rs 3.23 lakh.

More than a decade after the contemporary-looking Alto set foot on Indian roads, the car has continued to create new benchmarks in sales almost every month. This car was developed to upgrade customers who were buying the M800 but wished to have a better all-round vehicle even if it came at a minor premium.

Despite a robust increase in competition in the compact car segment with affordable price tags, sales of the Alto continued to scale new heights.

The product sold 240,000 units last year, nearly a quarter of Maruti’s more than one million sales.

But Maruti wants to get into the new price point now with the K-series family of engines, which are cleaner, refined and more fuel-efficient than the earlier range.

Although Maruti officials declined to reveal details of the new Alto, the idea behind having a refurbished version of the car is to go up the ladder to have a shot at the new price point.

The new K10 engine can provide 20.2 km per litre and can go from 0-100 m per hour in 13.3 seconds.

The base version of the Alto 800 (LX-BSIV) in Mumbai is priced at Rs 2.74 lakh (ex-showroom). Maruti will not  phase out the 800cc Alto.

“With the AC switched on and five people in the car, the engine of the Alto seems short of power although its light weight contributes tremendously to the fuel-efficiency of around 18-20 kmpl. The new Alto can wipe out these problems without hampering fuel-efficiency too much”, says an auto industry expert.

This is not the first time that Maruti is experimenting with the Alto. It had introduced a 1.1 litre Alto years ago which did not succeed as customers obsessed with fuel economy junked the vehicle.

Hyundai’s response
Hyundai Motors is planning a toned down version of its largest selling car i10 before the year ends. The Korean car maker is in advanced stages of introducing a 1-litre Kappa engine for i10, which has become the company’s flagship brand. The car is currently sold with a 1.1-litre iRDE and 1.2 litre Kappa engine options in India.

i10 sales surpassed that of Santro (formerly Hyundai’s largest selling car brand) during the last financial year to become Hyundai’s flagship brand. The i10 was launched in October 2007 and till June has sold 338,000 units in the domestic market – the fastest to breach the 300,000 milestone.

Three components suppliers to Hyundai independently confirms the company’s plans of launching a low-capacity peppy engine which is expected to push up the economy figures of the car substantially. The 1.1 litre model delivers 19.69 kmpl with the bigger 1.2 litre Kappa bettering that with 19.81 kmpl, according to the ARAI.

While the Alto sells anywhere between 16,000-20,000 units per month, sales of the i10, which is priced 30 per cent higher, averages around 12,000-13,000 units.

This ratio could however change dramatically for two reasons: First, Hyundai has already announced its plans to have a diesel variant for the car next year. And second, i10’s toned down version will be cheaper than the existing model, bringing down the price differential with Alto.

Arvind Saxena, director sales and marketing, Hyundai Motor India, says, “Volumes (for the i10) are quite comfortable at this stage. The two cars are in separate segments. It will be difficult to put a target date when i10 sales would be more than Alto’s.

The two top selling models came very close to each other in March, 2010 when Alto sales dropped to 16,397, while i10 sold 15,236 units during the same month, according to data provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.