Well call this a Swift move or diesel power, India’s largest selling car Alto is now dropped to number 2 position. The hottest hatch Swift has swiftly moved up the ladder.
The Alto ruled the number position for the last seven years selling an average of 20,000 units per month. The Swift is in huge demand mainly because of its diesel offering and is also selling 20,000 units per month. Thanks to increase in production and the engine supply from Fiat which has helped Maruti to be reduced the waiting period of the best selling hatch to 4 months from 6-9 months.
The Swift is twice the cost of the base Alto and still has a waiting period of 2-4 months with more than 1.3 lakh bookings .
Alto sales drop could be mainly attributed to the following reasons:
- Available in mainly Petrol and CNG variants only
- Aging effect
- Competition largely from the Tata Nano and the Hyundai Eon
- Higher finance rates
Maruti has been working on various measures to increase its sales and is also planning a model under the Alto which will replace the M800. The company will soon stop manufacturing the M800 which has been in production for the last 29 years.
We will have to see for how many months Swift will retain its number one position. Maruti Alto will surely bounce back to top position as Maruti Suzuki will have a strategy in place.
Image Source: HT
