Maruti to roll out new Estilo

Maruti Suzuki India plans to relaunch the Estilo, having made several changes to the small car.

The new avatar, to be launched next week, will sport the advanced K-series engine, and drop the ‘Zen’ nomenclature. The car would henceforth be called just Estilo.
The new Estilo is expected to be priced slightly higher than the current version because of the new engine and improved transmission.

So what necessitated one of the fastest upgrades in passenger car market (the current Estilo was launched less than three years ago)?

Mayank Pareek, executive officer (marketing & sales) for Maruti, did not agree that the car’s sales performance was below expectations. Estilo was selling 3,000 units a month on an average — compare this with the Alto, which clocks 19,000-20,000 units a month — and since launch in 2006 December, Maruti has sold just over a lakh Estilo units.

Maruti has spent a sizeable Rs 120 crore in upgrading the car (minus the cost of strapping it with the new K-series engine) and may well be looking for substantial incremental sales going forward.

To a question on exports, Pareek said that the Estilo would primarily be exported to Indonesia.

On overall sales growth, he said that the company is targeting high double-digit growth in the first half, beating expectations of a 5% sales spurt. “Initially, we were targeting 4 -5% growth for this fiscal… We have grown 14% in April-July and see this growth continuing until the festival season,” he said.

Denying any impact of deficient rains on sales, Pareek said Maruti has in fact increased dispatches to dealers ahead of the festival seasons. Overall, exports for Maruti are expected to touch 1.2 lakh units this year, up from about 70,000 units during 2008-09.