Maruti Suzuki must strengthen its portfolio in SUV segment to gain market share, says Executive Director

Maruti Suzuki and Toyota will collaborate on launching SUVs in the Indian market. SUVs have been a weak point in Maruti’s portfolio, but now Maruti’s parent company Suzuki and Toyota will be collaborating on two SUVs which will rival Hyundai Creta in the Indian market.

Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director at Maruti Suzuki, in an interview with CNBC-TV18 said the company must strengthen its portfolio in the segment if it has to gain market share.

“...in the non-SUV segment, we have a market share of almost 67 percent. However if you look at the overall market share for Maruti Suzuki, it is below 50 percent and that is because our market share in SUVs is a lot less. Industry wide there are about 48 vehicles in the SUV space and out of that Maruti Suzuki has only 2. So if we want to achieve our objective of market share, then we need to look at growing in this large segment of SUVs. So Maruti needs to strengthen its portfolio in the SUV segment,” he said.