Baleno, which would roll on to the city streets in November this year, is the first of the three new models that Maruti is rolling out to stave off competition. The rest of the new models -- Wagon-R and Alto -- would be priced below the Rs 4 lakh barrier, sources close to the company said here on Wednesday.

These prices have already been communicated to the company's vendors.

Baleno would be introduced in two variants -- as a luxury sedan and a wagon. The wagon version of the car would sport the Rs 7.25 lakh price tag while the sedan would be cheaper by around Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000. The exact tag of the sedan variant is yet to be finalised, the sources added.

Meanwhile, the wagon-R would be introduced in three variants.

The board of directors of Maruti had recently finalised the launch schedule for the three new models.The Wagon-R, with a 1000cc heart, would be the second in line to zip down the city streets, by January 2000. And, an upgrade of the existing Zen -- `Alto' -- would be the final among the new models. The car is scheduled to be launched in April with two engine variants -- 800cc and 1000cc.

The company has also indicated to the vendors its intention to produce 1,250 units of Baleno and 3,000 Wagon-R vehicles in the current fiscal. This would be hiked to 8,000 units of Baleno and 30,000 units of Wagon-R by 2000-01. It also intends to achieve 70 per cent localisation with the Wagon-R in the second year of production.

Baleno would be introduced with an indigenisation level of 25.6 per cent. However, this would be raised to 72.35 per cent by 2001-02. Production of Wagon-R would commence with a local content level of 67.16 per cent, which would later be raised to 70.89 per cent by 2000-01. The company is also confident of attaining 83.32 per cent indigenisation by the third year of production.

The company hasalso decided to advance the introduction of multi-point fuel injection engine-driven versions of its existing models to January 2000, the sources said. With this, all the existing models in the company's stables would be made Euro-II compliant by January.

"Vendors have already been given the tight schedule and work is on in full swing," vendor sources added.

Baleno, the sources said, would be positioned in the semi-luxury segment to stave off the fierce competition from a slew of new models scheduled to be launched around November.

The Wagon-R is a multi-purpose vehicle and a hybrid between a van and a jeep.

The sources further pointed out that efforts have already been initiated to localise the power trains for the new models. "Only the Baleno engine would be imported initially but efforts are on to locally produce it at Maruti's Gurgaon factory."

MUL is a 50:50 joint venture between the Government of India and Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan.

The company had recently signed the memorandum ofunderstanding (MoU) with the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) under the revised Indian automobile policy to import completely knocked down (CKD) and semi-knocked down (SKD) kits of Baleno and Wagon-R.

Maruti has also chalked out plans to progressively invest Rs 524 crore for manufacturing these two models. The major investment in this case will be regarding Wagon-R and is expected to be to the tune of Rs 436.94 crore. These investments are to put in place the manufacturing facilities for Baleno and Wagon-R.

In addition, the company is now all set to roll out a new look version of its popular Zen -- Zen Classic -- by August-end followed by a multi-point fuel injection (MPFI) version of the car in September. The vehicles have already been produced and road-tested and would hit the city streets over the next one month, the sources added.