Maruti races ahead in SUV sales in July

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Maruti Suzuki emerged as the largest seller of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in the local market last month with three of the company's new launches — Fronx, Brezza and Grand Vitara — featuring among the top 10 models sold in the segment in July. The country's largest passenger vehicle maker raced ahead of home grown automaker Mahindra & Mahindra in the fast-growing segment with sales of 42,620 units last month. Mahindra sold 36,205 units, while Hyundai Motor India was next at 32,991 units.

Fresh product interventions in the category, along with multiple powertrain options from gasoline to CNG and hybrids, enabled the company to draw in buyers on a fast clip, Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer (marketing and sales) at Maruti Suzuki, told ET. «We had anticipated consumer preference for SUVs, early on. What we erred on was in our judgement of how fast this market would evolve.

We took corrective measures introducing multiple products over the last one year and this helped us gain market share rapidly in the category,» Srivastava said.In July, the company's share in the SUV segment rose to 24.7% from a modest 8.5% in the first quarter of the last financial year, prior to the launch of the new models. The Fronx and the Jimny went on sale only at the start of this fiscal year. The Grand Vitara was launched in September 2022.