Maruti Suzuki Swift has been a major player for the brand’s sales aspiration and its volumes saw a YoY decrease of 26 per cent last month in India
Maruti Suzuki has been reaping benefits with its recent launches and that includes the third generation Swift hatchback. Debuted at the 2018 Auto Expo, it has been able to hold the torches of its predecessor and live up to the expectations. The existing Swift is based on the lightweight Heartect platform that underpins Dzire, Baleno, Ignis ann New Wagon R.
Since Maruti Suzuki is expanding the scalable architecture into different segments, the second generation Ertiga launched in November 2018 and third-gen Wagon R introduced this past January also sit on the same platform. The New Wagon R has continuously seen sales increase since January and it is mainly due to the inclusion of the 1.2-litre K series petrol engine from Swift and the completely restyled exterior.
With an expanded range, the Wagon R has been priced between Rs. 4.19 lakh and Rs. 5.69 lakh (ex-showroom). It is to be noted that the New Wagon R went from 10,000 unit sales in January 2019 to reach more than 16,000 mark in March 2019 with consistent YoY growth. However, Swift’s total monthly volume dropped to 14,218 units last time around.
| Months In 2019 | New Wagon R Sales | Swift Sales |
| January | 10,048 | 18,795 |
| February | 15,661 | 18,224 |
| March | 16,152 | 14,218 |
It is possible that the people wanting, let us say, a high-spec Swift petrol AMT, could find the Wagon R ZXi 1.2 AMT more attractive as well due to the latter being over Rs. 1.6 lakh cheaper. This is just an early stage apparently and in the coming months, we might get clarity over whether the new Wagon R is eating into the sales of the Swift or not.
When compared to the corresponding month last year with 19,207 units, the Swift witnessed a sales drop of 26 per cent despite having maintained more than 18,000 units in January and February 2019 each. The Swift carries a price tag of Rs. 4.99 lakh for the entry-level LXi variant and it goes up to Rs. 8.85 lakh for the range-topping ZDi Plus AMT (ex-showroom).
In November 2018, Maruti Suzuki announced that the Swift hatchback had crossed two million units in India and the third-gen model was the fastest to reach one lakh bookings in less than 10 weeks of its launch.