Maruti Suzuki bets on Grand Vitara to solve SUV puzzle

While Suzuki and Toyota are collaborating on Grand Vitara, the two Japanese carmakers will compete for sales, said Shashank Srivastava, Senior Ed-Marketing & Sales at Maruti Suzuki.

"We are fighting in the market obviously, there is no collaboration as far as the marketing and sales are concerned. We are going to go for our numbers, and I'm sure Toyota will go for their numbers," Srivastava told CNBC-TV18.

Further, the two companies will not collaborate on pricing, Srivastava added.

"We don't collaborate on pricing. We are not allowed to collaborate as far as marketing and sales are concerned, which includes pricing as well."

Srivastava also said that the "semiconductor supply has been getting better" while adding that Maruti Suzuki has a lot of "pending bookings".

"We are trying to ramp up the production to deliver the vehicles to the customers who are waiting, and one of the challenges is the variant-wise availability."

Maruti Suzuki's June 2022 total sales came in at 1.55 lakh vehicles, on a 5.4 percent year-on-year growth. The auto major sold 1.47 lakh units a year ago in the same month. Maruti Suzuki's overall exports in June zoomed 40 percent YoY at 23,833 against 17,020 units in the year-ago period. Maruti Suzuki's share in the non-SUV segment is at 65 percent, while the carmaker commands a market share near 45 percent.

Maruti Suzuki share price gained a percent in early deals on BSE on Wednesday ahead of the Grand Vitara launch. It settled at Rs 8,704.55 at Tuesday's close on BSE.