Maruti Suzuki and M&M: Urgent need of subcompact SUVs

The subcompact SUV is the fastest growing segment in what's otherwise been a depressed market. And two key players say they simply can't afford to wait any longer to jump in to the fray. We are talking about the country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki and the largest UV maker - Mahindra & Mahindra. The marketing guys at both companies would have liked to have had a subcompact SUV (essentially a taller, SUV-shaped car-like product that measures in at under 4 metres in length - so yeah an EcoSport clone) in their portfolio yesterday! But the good news is that bosses at both manufacturers have told us that these plans are being accelerated. Maruti first, right?

The company has always ruled the roost on the hatches - the new Celerio just goes to prove that further. But when it comes to the UV space, Maruti has more misses than hits in its past(Versa, Eeco, Grand Vitara). At the 2012 Auto Expo, Maruti showed us the XA-Alpha concept based on the Ertiga platform (in-turn based on a stretched Swift platform). And no - the production version did NOT debut at the 2014 show. The XA-Alpha as we saw it then, was deemed unfeasible from an engineering point of view, and so Maruti and Suzuki engineers have been hard at work to find a worthy challenger to the Ford EcoSport.

They realise it can't simply be a compact SUV, its got to fit-in under 4 metres so it can be priced as enticingly as the rest of Maruti's compact range of vehicles. I interviewed Maruti Suzuki Chairman, RC Bhargava today and he has admitted that the subcompact SUV is the most urgent need for Maruti today. The lack of such a model is keeping Maruti from playing in the fastest growing segment in a marketplace traditionally dominated by the company.

While Mr Bhargava was expectedly cagey on the exact timeframe by when this new product will hit the market, he told me it's currently under fastracked development. It's the next big priority for the carmaker too, and will help to complement the product strategy in the immediate future. Once Maruti consolidates the Celerio and achieves optimal production to meet market demand, it will focus on the C segment buyer with the next generation SX4 sedan, and proposed the subcompact SUV.

Now I know you will ask me - what about the SX4 S-Cross shown at the 2014 Expo, right? Well folks, that car was shown more to excite the visitor - to show off the company's global portfolio, and so while I would love to see it drive in, it is NOT the car to take on the EcoSport, quite simply because it is over 4 metres in length at 4300 mm. So we will get an India-specific model, that (based on success here) may also be considered for export to Indonesia. But the fact that we will get one is assured.

The timeframe looks like December-January unless Maruti can pull a rabbit from the hat as it were. The European SX4 S-Cross may well still make its way here as the market for compact SUVs continues to grow and mature, but its not the immediate priority. Not before January for sure, is also when Mahindra will launch the first of two compact products coming in 2015. The company has already had some limited success with the Quanto. But simply chopping the not-so-desirable Xylo was never going to be a sure-fire success formula. And so Mahindra has two new platforms under development, as shared by the President of M&M's Automotive Business unit, Dr Pawan Goenka.

Now Pawan is a very pragmatic man when it comes to his approach to the market, and so it is not surprising that the two products aim to attract two kinds of buyers. Those who definitley want value and will happily ditch the hatch, the compact sedan (and M&M hopes the EcoSport too!) for a Mahindra subcompact. And the second who would like to have options to the Duster and Terrano as the perceived value, comfort and driveability of those cars is now being seen as higher than the Scorpio. Mahindra says its pre-production prototypes are already under test at its Chakan facility outside Pune. And once the test mules have clocked the kilometres they need to, we may get a chance to also get a closer look at what M&M is planning to bring to market.

Both products will need to have far greater levels of interior trim and plastics, as well as some gadgets to boast of - if there has to be a real chance at toppling the EcoSport or Duster. And these platforms are not being shared with SsangYong for now, as the Korean brand is already working on a separate new platform, which is being shared with M&M for compact and medium-sized products launching globally between late 2015 and 2017.

In the meanwhile we will get the wannabe subcompact SUVs that may also excite some buyers - the Toyota Etios Cross and Fiat Avventura - both shown at the Expo, and launching within weeks, not months. With Maruti's project XA-Alpha closing in on completion, and similar products from Hyundai, GM and Tata on the way, this segment promises to remian hot - no make that red hot - right through to 2018. And that makes me glad because a higher level of competition for a growing pie can only mean better, safer, more efficient products, that are packed with more features, at prices that will excite! Advantage consumer - yet again!