Despite a host of mid-size, premium compact sedans, SUVs (not to speak of luxury cars) of all brands now available in the market, India’s tryst with small cars seems to be still going strong. Anyone having any doubt can just check the track record of Alto from the stable of Maruti Suzuki, whose reputation as an old war horse remains undiminished.
The company on Tuesday said the entry-level car has crossed the 40-lakh sales milestone since its launch 20 years ago. The only other car which comes near Alto is Maruti 800 — the car was once so popular that it never had a name and was known by its cubic capacity — which had sold 28 lakh units when it was phased out in January 2014 due to upgraded emission norms. In that sense, Alto can appropriately be termed “a worthy successor of the successful Maruti 800”, to quote Maruti Suzuki India chairman, RC Bhargava.
If one goes out of Maruti stable, the only other vehicle to be this successful was also a small car — Santro from Hyundai Motor India. Santro, launched in 1998, sold 13 lakh units before it was phased out in 2014. A new Santro was launched by Hyundai in August 2018. Alto was launched in 2000 and by 2004 it had already become India’s No. 1 selling car. By 2008, the car had sold 10 lakh units and touched the 20-lakh mark in 2012, followed by 30 lakh in 2016. Jagdish Khattar, who was Maruti’s managing director when Alto was launched, says since India is in the process of motorisation, the base needs to be broadened and therefore despite bigger cars available in the market, the demand for small cars will always be there as there would be a large number of first-time buyers.
“Alto is a very good car from every point of view and would obviously be the first choice for first-time buyers in India whose numbers are large,” Khattar told FE. Bhargava, who was Maruti’s MD before Khattar, says apart from India being a small car market, the success of Alto can also be attributed to the market becoming bigger. “When Maruti 800 was launched in 1983, the market for cars in India was 40,000 units a year. Even in 1997 the market was 3 lakh units a year and Maruti 800’s share was 80% of it. Today, around 3.5 million cars are sold in a year and with India being a small car market, obviously the market for Alto has grown bigger. India is going to remain a small car market for a very long time,” Bhargava said.
“Alto, over the past two decades, has changed the way India commutes. It has been ranked the No. 1 selling car in the last 16 years and continues to win hearts and surprise Indian car buyers with its exciting value proposition,” Maruti Suzuki India executive director (marketing & sales) Shashank Srivastava said. “We have seen that nearly 76% of Alto customers have selected it as their first car in 2019-20, which has further increased to 84% for the current year,” Srivastava added. In 2019-20, 59% of Alto sales came from upcountry markets which has increased to 62% for the current year.
