Maruti Suzuki has hiked the margins for dealers on the petrol cars in order to boost sales of the petrol cars. Having faced significant slowdown in sales and numerous worker strikes in the year 2011, India’s largest carmaker’s market share has come down to 38 percent. Increasing the dealer margins by 10 percent would incentivize the dealers into selling more of the petrol cars.
The Maruti dealers will now get an additional Rs. 1,000 for the small cars such as the Alto, the WagonR and the Estilo, Rs. 1,500 for the petrol versions of the Ritz and the SX4 sedan and Rs. 2,000 for the A-Star hatchback petrol version.
The increase in the dealer’s margin comes for the first time in about 10 years. It is due to the decrease in the petrol car sales that the company has been forced into taking measures and make efforts to boost the sales of petro powered cars. Moreover, the company is reeling under the pressure of the increasing demand for diesel powered cars and its inability to fulfill the demand in a timely manner with waiting periods for cars like the Swift hatchback stretching for 8 months or so.
