Maruti Suzuki Alto crosses 35 lakh sales mark; look what RS Kalsi has to say about it

Maruti Suzuki, country's largest carmaker, added a fresh feather in its cap. The auto major's popular entry level hatchback Alto crossed a key 35 lakh sales mark in February. "This has been our biggest achievement on single model wih evolving customers," told RS Kalsi, senior executive director, Maruti Suzuki to Zee Business. Launched 18 years ago in 2001, Alto took over 6 years to touch the 5 lakh sales mark. Following which, 5 lakh units of the model were sold in every two years.

Alto was also the first car in entry level segment to have the automated manual transmission (AMT).

"On an average, 20,000 units of Alto are sold every month," said Kalsi.

On asking if India will remain a big market for small cars, Kalsi pointed out while India is a diverse market, requirement for small cars will stay as market is underserved compared to developed market, and there are still gaps in terms of availability and supply.

Maruti Suzuki has plans to launch electric vehicle by 2020. However, Kalsi noted that launching a small electric car is a challenging task.

Also read: Confident of beating industry growth in FY19: R S Kalsi of Maruti Suzuki

"It's tough to have entry-level electric cars because cost is high," said Kalsi.

He expects automobiles industry to grow at 9-10 per cent in FY19.

Giving a growth forecast for the company, Kalsi said: Maruti Suzuki is logging 14 per cent growth right now. While we are yet to finalise the target and budget for next year, what I can say is we will maintain growth momentum in double digit, aiming at beating industry growth.