Maruti’s Shashank Srivastava Says Premium Hatch Buyers Are Now Opting For Subcompact SUVs

The massive demand for SUVs in India is no longer a new phenomenon. The SUV segment, which a few years ago accounted for about just 9 per cent of the total passenger car space, has now grown to nearly 33 per cent. This push has mainly come because of the exponential growth of sub-4 metre SUVs, which includes popular models like the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Tata Nexon, Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, and Ford EcoSport among others. In fact, Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India, believes that a lot of premium hatchback buyers are now moving towards subcompact SUVs.

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Speaking with carandbike, Srivastava said, "In the last couple of years, the premium hatch segment, which is the Beleno, i20, Swift segment, in that segment, there seems to be a lot of cross consideration between this (premium hatchbacks) and the entry SUV segment. And that is a recent phenomenon. I think what is fuelling it is the preference of design choice of consumers towards SUVs, that's one reason. The other reason is because of the sub-4 metre market, which has grown substantially in the SUV sector."

The cross consideration because of the pricing overlapping has made premium hatch consumers consider entry SUV

Right now, the difference between the base price of the Maruti Suzuki Baleno and the Vitara Brezza is just about Rs. 1.5 lakh. Whereas, when you consider the Hyundai i20 and the Venue subcompact SUV, the difference is close to Rs. 1 lakh or less because the former is a fairly new car with a lot of advanced features. In fact, the difference between the price of the entry-level variants of the two models is less than Rs. 10,000. And the closing in of this gap has also led consumers to opt for a subcompact SUV over a premium hatch. Expressing the same notions, Srivastava added, "The cross consideration because of the pricing overlapping has actually made premium hatch consumers consider entry SUV and vice versa."

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The difference between the base price of the Maruti Suzuki Baleno and the Vitara Brezza is just about Rs. 1.5 lakh

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Currently, the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza is the only SUV in the carmaker's portfolio. While S-Presso is just a hatchback with SUV like styling, the S-Cross is essentially a crossover. Having said that, Shashank Srivastava also hinted that the company is evaluating newer segments, and the SUV category is part of it. We believe that the highly anticipated Maruti Suzuki Jimny could be one such SUV to be launched in India soon.