Maruti’s current pending bookings stand at 200,000 and a good part of this backlog is accounted for by the Ertiga. According to Rahul Bharti, Chief Investor Relations Officer, Maruti leadership speaking at the analyst call after earnings, pending Ertiga orders at the end of Q4 stand at 60,000 and the pending bookings for overall CNG vehicles is at 111,000.
The company assured that the newly inaugurated assembly line at Manesar with “100,000 units additional capacity will be used to primarily address the Ertiga bottleneck.” Ertiga is also set to play a key role in achieving Maruti Suzuki’s 6,00,000 CNG target for FY25. According to Bharti, “CNG has been a significant driver and Ertiga CNG has seen significant traction.”
Ertiga CNG sees strong sales traction
Infact, Ertiga achieved the 10 lakh sales mitestone in 2024 and CNG accounts for a good part of it. The MPV’s demand has seen a considerable spike after it hit the 5 lakh units mark in 2019 and retailed more than a lakh units every year since then. Interestingly the CNG variant was launched in February 2020. The same year when Eriga hit its next important 6 lakh unit sale milestone in just 12 months. It took the MPV over 7 years to reach the first 5 lakh unit mark but buoyed by the demand for the CNG variant, it took just 4 years to reach the next 5 lakh sales mark. In Q4 alone, this popular MPV saw sales of nearly 15,000 units every month totalling over 45,000 units in a quarter.
Robust demand for pre-owned Ertiga CNG
What’s particularly interesting is that the Ertiga is equally popular in the pre-owned car segment too. With over 37% market share, the new variant of the MPV is popular in both rural and urban areas and the used car segment also almost mirrors this trend country-wide. Known for its practicality, space and fuel efficiency it is also breaking records in the pre-owned section. Most organised used car players highlight the low depreciation and low buying price combination that this MPV offers and according to them this is what makes it a popular choice for those looking at value buys in the used car space.
Maruti Suzuki 3.0
Bharti elaborated on Maruti Suzuki’s third phase of growth and highlighted how the passenger car market leader has its goal set on the 40 lakh cars a year by 2031 mark. This will essentially mean that Maruti Suzuki will be doubling its sales from the current levels.
The company in this phase is solely focussing on higher production capacity having consolidated its lead position in the market.
