Country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India is seeking to revive growth in compact sedan segment in the country with the launch of its third generation Dzire on May 16. The company officials on Monday (April 24) said the new DZire will be targeted at aspirational individual buyers, whereas the DZire Tour will be peddled for sales in the taxi segment.
To distinguish the new Dzire with the older variant, Maruti has dropped the Swift name, saying that they always believed that they are developing a new car and not just an upgraded version of an existing model.
Maruti sold 1,92,000 units of Dzire in FY 2016-17, of which around 32,000 units were purchased by commercial buyers. In recent months, Maruti witnessed a fall in Dzire sales. It expects the new model will be more successful than the existing one.
Since its launch in 2008, Maruti has sold over 13.81 lakh units of Dzire, capturing a market share of 50 per cent in the heavily competitive segment. The company says that it is a very customer centric car and delivers the aspirational needs of young cars buyers.
“Around 46 per cent of Dzire buyers are first time buyers and 44 per cent of them are aged below 35. The car will fulfil the demand of every type of buyers," said MSI Executive Director Sales and Marketing RS Kalsi.
The market leader has made many changes in the exterior and interior of the compact sedan. The sedan will come equipped with dual airbags, ABS with EBD across all its variants. An international safety standard – ISOFIX - child restraint system comes as standard equipment across variants. The new Dzire is 40mm wider and 20 mm longer wheelbase which opens up more room inside.
The weight of the Petrol model has gone down by 85kg, while the diesel version is 105kg lighter.
Not just Maruti, other players launching compact sedans are focusing on individual buyers. Tata Motor which launched Tigor last month said that it will focus the personal segment for sales and push its other model Zest for commercial players.
Korean automaker Hyundai also changed its marketing strategy to address the needs of the personal buyer. The company will sell the older Xcent to fleet operators under the ‘Prime’ brand. The last week launched Xcent is targeted at individual buyers.
Due to increase adoptability of these sedans by commercial players, individual buyers have started buying premium hatchbacks and compact SUVs, impacting sales of entry level sedans. As a result, the segment posted negative growth of -8.6 per cent in FY16-17. The same segment witnessed a growth of 20 per cent in FY14-15.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
