BackMaruti expects shift in demand for petrol cars
The firm plans to invest up to Rs4,000 crore in the next 2-3 years in product development, R&D and marketing infrastructure
Premium
Kolkata/Hyderabad: Country’s largest passenger car maker Maruti Suzuki is expecting a shift towards petrol vehicles with the recent deregulation of diesel by the government.
“We expect that the passenger preference will shift towards purchase of petrol cars as the diesel prices got de-regulated and price gap between the two are narrowing down", vice-president and commercial business head of Maruti S.N. Burman said.
He said that presently the proportion of diesel and petrol cars for Maruti was at 30% and 70% respectively.
“For Maruti, petrol cars sell most because its two best selling models, Alto and WagonR, were in this version", he told reporters at the launch of new Alto K10.
The industry trend was 45% for diesel and 55% for petrol.
Maruti had the flexibility to ramp up production of petrol cars when the demand picked up to higher levels, he said.
About new segment entries, he said that Maruti did not have presence in the sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment.
“The company is planning to introduce a SUV in the next year", he said.
Meanwhile, Maruti is investing up to Rs4,000 crore in the next 2-3 years in key areas like product development, R&D and marketing infrastructure, a senior MSIL official said on Tuesday.
MSIL would also focus more on bringing out models with auto gear shift technology, going forward, executive director- engineering, C.V. Raman said.
“Currently Rs4,000 crore worth of investments are going into research and development, product development and marketing infrastructure over period of two to three years (including the current year).
“We will be improving our R&D capability. We are setting up test labs and other facilities. Marketing infrastructure such as setting up stockyards will be created," Raman said on the sidelines of launch of the company’s new version of Alto K10 hatchback.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
