BW Communities

History Repeats For The Swift

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Maruti Suzuki's new Swift which is scheduled to be launched on 17 August has already received a booking number of 38,000- hardly a month after its announcement. The booking for the new Swift started on 11 July 2011. In May 2005, Maruti Suzuki India had opened bookings for its European design car Swift, well before it was introduced in the market. At the time of launch, over 9000 customers had booked the Swift without actually seeing the car. It sold 53,000 units, the same year. The waitlist continues even when the new model of the popular Swift is set to hit the Indian roads.  "There is a growing demand amongst the consumer for the new Swift. And therefore we are expanding our current manufacturing capacity from 12,000 units to a progressively 17,000-18,000 units a month at our Manesar plant," says Mayank Pareek, managing executive officer at Maruti Suzuki India. At present Swift has around 25 per cent market share in premium A2 segment (between Rs. 3.9 lakh to 5.5 lakh). Some other car models present in the segment are i20, Polo, Fabia, UVA, Micra, Getz, Punto, Palio and the newly launched Liva. "The new Swift will come with a new VVT engine and will be bigger with more leg room, premium interiors with new dashboard design and high end stereo. The diesel option will also continue with a fine tuning of the engine to give 6 per cent more fuel efficiency," adds a company official. So far the company sold around 6 lakh units of the old Swift in the overall segment. On an average, the model sells over 11,000 units a month and has always been in short supply despite its efforts to continuously scale up its production volume. In 2010-11, Swift registered a growth of over 21 per cent. In the last couple of months, Maruti Suzuki has been hit hard in terms of market share and production due to the strike in the Manesar plant. In May 2011, the company had a market share of around 46 per cent, but in June the share came down to 38 per cent. "We will try and meet the market demand with the help of the increase in our capacity," says an optimistic Pareek. The company is hopeful to deliver the 38,000 cars to its customers within a time span of 2-3 months.