In race with Thar, Jimny now faces an uphill task

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(see chart). “While both cars share the same off-road features, there are notable differences," Dhillon said. “Thar offers a more powerful engine and larger size.

It has greater seating capacity and cargo space making it more suitable for those who require additional passenger or storage options." Sold through Nexa dealerships, this is a rare failure for Maruti, India’s largest car maker with a market share of 42% in the passenger vehicle market. More so, because SUVs are all the rage in the country now, accounting for over half of all passenger vehicle sales. Compact SUVs—both Jimny and Thar are in this category—form a third of the market (see chart).

Jimny sticks out like a sore thumb for Maruti also because it tempers the momentum it gained in SUVs. Maruti nearly doubled its market share in the domestic SUV market, from 10.5% in 2022 to 19.7% in 2023. In a hotly contested battle, it was a close second to Mahindra (21.6% share).

In fact, in the third quarter, when sales of Jimny were high, it nudged ahead of Mahindra. As volumes shrunk in the last quarter, Maruti lost the edge. The question is what went wrong? Jimny is not a new car.

It has over five decades of global off-roading pedigree. First produced in 1970, in Japan, over 3.2 million units of the SUV have been sold worldwide till date and it did particularly well in Latin America, Middle East and Africa. Maruti Suzuki is renowned for knowing the pulse of the consumer.

But in this case, did it get the India pricing wrong? Launched at ₹12.74- ₹15.05 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), Jimny was one of the most expensive compact SUVs in the country. “The pricing was off from the beginning," said Himanshu Singh, research analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher, a brokerage house. The