India's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, had been the king of the small car market for a long time until Renault came with its most affordable offering for the Indian market, the Kwid hatchback. The Kwid has been selling like a hot cake since it was launched last year in September. Now, sensing tough competition in the segment, Maruti is reportedly planning to bring in an all-new Alto in the next three years.
Internally called the Y1K, the project is already underway, according to Economic Times. The new car is likely to be launched by the festive season of 2019 and it will be the most expressive Alto one has seen till date and may even sport a crossover design, as per the report.
It hardly comes in as a surprise, given that the Kwid has significantly eaten into Alto’s market share of late. The highest-selling Indian car has seen its stock decline from 48 percent share in the entry-level car market to 40 percent at present. On the other hand, the Kwid has claimed almost 20 percent of this share, selling close to 10,000 units a month regularly.
But the company has covered up for its dwindling small car market presence by succeeding in the B segment through the Vitara Brezza and the Baleno. But Maruti still is intent to improve in its ‘bread and butter’ division through a few other additions apart from the new Alto.
The WagonR hatchback (code named YCA) and the Celerio small car (code named YNC) are also said to be in the making. They could also feature in the company’s future lineup that will witness the addition of 15 new products by 2020, as announced in the middle of 2015.
Source: CarDekho.com
