Maruti Ertiga exports to Indonesia to begin in May

The first batch of Maruti Suzuki's multi purpose vehicle Ertiga will be shipped to Indonesia by end of May, according to a company official. "We will begin to export it to Indonesia by end of next month", Maruti Suzuki India, Chief General Manager (Marketing), Shashank Srivastava, told reporters in Chennai. According to him, the company has about three per cent market share in Indonesia and hopes to increase it in future with the launch of Ertiga in Indonesia. The company would export the MPV as a Completely-Knocked Down unit and assemble it in Indonesia, he said.

Making a foray in the MPV segment, Maruti Suzuki recently launched its latest product "Ertiga" priced from Rs 6.17 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai). In Bangalore, launching the "Ertiga" priced at Rs 6.12 lakh (ex-showroom) for the base model, Maruti Suzuki India Chief Managing Executive Officer and National Marketing and Sales-Head, Mayank Pareek said they are increasing the diesel vehicle production capacity by 1.50 million units. Given the increasing trend of buyers preferring diesel engine powered vehicles, Srivastava said 80 per cent sales of Ertiga would be from the diesel variant while the remaining would be from petrol version. Asked if the launch of Ertiga would hamper sales of its premium hatchback "Swift",Srivastava said they have increased production of Swift, reducing the waiting period considerably. "We have increased production from 12,000 units to 20,000 units per month. The waiting period has now come down to 4.5 months from 6.5 months," he said.

On whether there are plans to introduce CNG variant of Ertiga, Srivastava said they already have products like Wagon R and Ritz CNG variants, which they are unable to sell in most parts of the country due to lack of CNG stations. "There is no clear plan from the Government to have a CNG station (across India)", he said. Pareek said MPVs have emerged as the fastest growing sub-segment, registering over 20 per cent growth in the last three years. MPVs presently account for 10 per cent share of the Indian automobile industry, he said. He said the company's sales had declined by 11.7 last year due to diesel and petrol price hike.