Maruti Suzuki’s entry-level car Alto, which sells the most every month, has crossed cumulative sales of 35 lakh units in the domestic market since its launch in 2000. Nearly 5 lakh units of the Alto get sold every two years. According to Maruti Suzuki, which has had average sales of 22,000 Altos per month for the past 10 years, 55% of its customers had preferred buying the Alto as their first car while 25% bought it as an additional car. Though the Alto continues to be the highest-selling car every month, in recent years its rate of growth has started declining. This is because consumer preference has moved towards mid-size cars, premium hatchbacks and compact sports utility vehicles. For instance, in January Maruti’s total domestic sales of passenger vehicles grew 5% compared with the same month last year.
Alto and WagonR sales declined 12.2% during the month compared with the same period last year, while sales of the mid-size segment and premium hatchbacks grew 21.6%. Though the Alto has been a top-selling car, it took it six years since its launch in 2000 to touch the sales mark of 5 lakh. In 2008 it touched the 10 lakh cumulative sales mark and thereafter every two years added 5 lakh units to the cumulative sales of the model. “This is quite a big mark for a single brand in a country. Keeping a brand relevant for so many years continuously requires a lot of strategic planning. Understanding the customers is relatively easier but the change that happens in the taste, likings of the customers and then implementing that is a more difficult job from the marketing point of view,” RS Kalsi, senior executive director (marketing and sales), Maruti Suzuki India, told FE.
