Maruti to enter mid-SUV segment to lift market share: Srivastava

Kolkata: Leading automobile manufacturer Maruti Suzuki will consider the SUV segment as a key area to lift its overall market share in the country, a senior company official said on Wednesday.

Presently, the company's overall market share is under 45 per cent and the target is to lift it to 50 per cent.

Senior Executive Director of Maruti Suzuki Shashank Srivastava told reporters here that in the non-SUV segment, the company has a market share of more than 65 per cent while in the SUV segment is not big. The company's basic objective is to lift the overall market share to 50 per cent.

Srivastava said "SUV is the largest and fastest growing segment and Maruti must have a good market share in this. In the entry level SUV segment, Maruti's share is 20 per cent of the 6.6 lakh cars which is being sold annually. But Maruti does not have a car in the mid-SUV segment whose size is 5.5 lakh." The official said although Maruti is a market leader in the entry-SUV segment, it has no presence in the mid-SUV segment. "There is a need to enter the mid-SUV segment for which it will launch a model in the last week of September this year", Srivastava said, adding that the company needs to grow in volume and market share both.

He also said the volume of diesel SUV sales in the mid-SUV segment is dropping as petrol engines are giving good fuel efficiency. The official also said that Maruti is also looking at sub-four metre SUV segment, adding that company was having a good market share in the van segment.