Maruti Suzuki which has been known to be driven by volume sales of its mini cars, the Alto, the Maruti 800 and the WagonR has seen a significant decline in sales of these car models while witnessing a surge in demand of its diesel powered premium segment hatchbacks and sedans such as the Swift and the Swift DZire.
The company’s sales increased by 6.5 percent in the month of February 2012 compared to its sales in February 2011. The former mini cars also known as the drivers of volume sales have now been replaced by compact cars such as the Swift, the Ritz and the Estilo which have seen an increase of 31.1 percent in sales.
The sales turnaround is also the result of the widening gap between the prices of petrol and diesel fuel, the diesel fuel being cheaper by almost Rs 30. The hike in petrol prices have driven the customers into buying diesel variants which are only available in select car models of Maruti Suzuki, irrespective of the premium pricing of the diesel car variants by almost Rs 1,00,000 and the long waiting periods of about 7 months.
