Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. You may have to wait for another 3 years for Maruti's electric vehicle as the company's focus is only on hybrid cars. The company introduced its first hybrid car Grand Vitara on 20 July. This is the car that will run on both electric and petrol mode. The company can also launch this technology in its other cars in the coming days. Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer (sales and marketing), Maruti Suzuki India, said that it may take till 2025 for their electric car to arrive. However, the company's entire focus is on hybrid cars for the purpose of giving more mileage at a cheaper rate. That is, in the coming days, you can get a hybrid version in cars like Celerio to Ciaz.

28 km in one liter

The Grand Vitara is the latest example. This car will run about 28 km in one liter of petrol. The price has not been decided yet, but the market expects its price to be close to 10 lakhs. More than 20 thousand bookings have been done for this car in just 8 days.

Discount will be available

Between January 2021 and April 2022, Maruti has increased prices six times. In January 2021, prices of CNG cars were increased by 1.3% on all models, 1.6% in April 2021 and 0.6% in July 21 only. After this, the price of all cars except Celerio has been increased by 1.9% in September 21, 1.7% on all models in January 22 and 1.3% on all models in April 22 also. There has been a slight decline in the raw material prices in the global market. In such a situation, at present the company is not thinking of increasing the prices. According to Shashank, customers can also get discount offers in the coming festive season.

He said the demand-supply balance decides the discount offers. Record sales have been made during the last two quarters i.e. January to March and April to June. Over 9 lakh cars were sold in both the quarters. That means the demand is good. In such a situation, the discount offers can be returned in the coming festive season.

Alto to continue

A few days ago there were reports that Maruti is going to discontinue its entry level cars like Alto due to stricter safety rules, but it is not so. Shashank Srivastava made it clear that Maruti will continue to sell cars to every segment of the customer. The entry level cars will continue to be available to the customers, meeting the safety norms.

Trying to reduce waiting period

The delivery of 3.7 lakh cars of different models of Maruti is pending. Their average waiting period is 3 months. The waiting period for Multi Utility Vehicle (MUV) Ertiga CNG is up to 9 months. The reason behind this was the shortage of the semiconductor chip.