BackBaleno receives over 4,600 bookings in two days: Maruti
The car would compete with Hyundai Motor India's Elite i20 and Jazz from Honda cars in India
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Chennai: Country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki has received over 4,600 bookings of its latest premium hatchback Baleno launched recently, a top company official said on Wednesday.
The company had re-introduced Baleno two days ago at New Delhi aiming to garner a significant market share in the premium hatchback segment. The car would compete with Hyundai Motor India’s Elite i20 and Jazz from Honda cars in India.
“We have been receiving overwhelming bookings ahead of its national launch. On the day of the launch, over 1,500 visitors visited our showrooms and 600 of them booked while on the second day, 3,500 visited the showrooms and 1,200 booked. Total booking figures will be over 4,600," Maruti Suzuki India Executive Director (Marketing and Sales), R S Kalsi told reporters.
Stating that Baleno would be exported to 100 countries, he said, “we hope to achieve leadership market share in the premium hatchback segment". Kalsi said in 2014, the premium hatchback segment comprised 5.20 lakh units and registered a 22% growth.
“We have invested about Rs1,060 crore in this project (manufacturing of Baleno). We will be making exports to 100 overseas locations including Europe, Japan, South America in 2016," he said. Asked about the sales of S-Cross which was launched three months ago by Maruti Suzuki, he said the company has sold 12,000 units so far.
Maruti Suzuki India currently has two manufacturing facilities, with a total capacity of 15 lakh units. The third facility is coming up in Gujarat and is expected to go on stream by mid-2017, he added. Baleno was introduced as a premium sedan few years back, but due to poor sales, its production was stopped.
Maruti Suzuki is also working on introducing safety features in all variants of its cars, both existing and new, a company official said on Wednesday. Currently, auto-manufacturers introduce safety features only in middle and top variants of some existing models.
“We are working on making safety features as standard feature in all existing products of ours. We are planning to introduce a model fitted with safety features ahead of the government’s regulation," Maruti Suzuki India Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) R S Kalsi told reporters.
He was here to launch the premium hatchback ‘Baleno’, which would be a global car made from India. “Baleno comes with all the safety features like dual air bags and ABS as standard features in all its variants," he said. The car would be available from the exclusive Nexa outlets set up by the automaker, along with S-Cross, he said.
Maruti Suzuki currently has 80 Nexa outlets across the country and would take it to 100 by year-end. Baleno will be available in four petrol and three diesel variants at an introductory price of ₹ 5.16 lakh for the basic petrol variant, while the top-end diesel model is priced at ₹ 8.34 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai).
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