The customers who have booked the latest premium hatchback model from Maruti Suzuki, Baleno, might have to stay patient for up to six months to get their order delivered. The manufacturer is struggling hard to meet the demand. The production can be increased only by increasing the price of the other models.
The biggest car maker in the country, Maruti Suzuki, is witnessing production constraints with its latest offering Baleno that is forcing it to manage the output between the export and domestic markets. The Baleno is one of the best selling cars that have unserviced bookings of around 55,000 units and it has sales of 44,000 units in six months. The vehicle is exported to Europe and Japan and this has resulted in a lower supply in India since December.
The domestic volume of the model dropped by 41 percent in the last month accounting to 6,236 units and it is the lowest since the time it was launched selling 10,572 units in December. The exports have increased over three times in the past three months from 1,800 units in January to 5,600 units inMarch.
Maruti Suzuki runs its plants in the state of Haryana at almost full capacity. It is possible to product incremental volumes by means of improvisations like debottlenecking. An increase in the production of the Baleno beyond this will be done by compromising on volumes of the other models.
The Baleno production will be expanded as planned, but the demand will continue to outshine the supply, stated the company. Initially, it was aimed to increase the overall production to 150,000 units leaving 100,000 units for the Indian market and the rest for the export purpose. R C Bhargava, the Chairman at MSIL stated they are bullish to see the production increase beyond 160,000 units this year.
However, the rivals could clearly cash in on the supply bottleneck of Baleno. Hyundai has grown in terms of volume and it maintains the market share in the segment of premium hatchbacks with the i20 that has a waiting period of just 15 to 20 days.
