Maruti gets set to launch the Ritz

Maruti Suzuki will launch its sixth global car, Ritz, in May. The mass market car will be launched in the popular small car segment with a 1.2 litre KB series petrol and 1.3 litre multijet diesel engine simultaneously. The Ritz will be built on Maruti’s successful Splash platform and will be priced between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, which is just below the Swift’s price tag. It will be shorter than the Swift (by 30 mm), but will be spacious due to high roof structure. The Ritz will be positioned between the Astar and the Swift, and will counter Hyundai’s i10 and i20, Skoda’s Fabia, Ford’s Fusion, Fiat’s Palio and Tata Motors’ Indica Vista. This car is Maruti’s ninth small car that will consolidate its position in the crowded market. Dubbed as a multi-purpose vehicle, it will cater to small urban families and sport BS-IV engines and a 5-speed manual gearbox. The Ritz, known as Splash in Europe and other developed markets, will coexist with the ageing WagonR platform, just as the newly-launched A-Star is thriving with the Alto. According to dealers, the Ritz will be launched prior to Honda’s small car, Jazz, which is slated to hit the roads in June and Fiat’s premium hatchback, Grande Punto. The Ritz has cleared all the homologation tests and has been approved by the International Centre of Automotive Technology (iCAT) at Manesar in Haryana last week for launch in the Indian market. After disappointing sales in 2008, Maruti’s tally of rising sales is not stopping in Q4. For March, its domestic sales increased 14.64% to 73,855 units compared with 64,421 units of last year. Maruti’s sales grew 6% and 19% in the past two months, respectively. The revival in sales for the January-March quarter helped the company post its highest ever annual sales in the 25-year history, which increased 3.57% to 7.92 lakh units in FY09 against 7.64 lakh units in FY08. With a new export model, A-Star (pegged as Alto in Europe), its export increased 43% to 70,023 units in the last fiscal. The company exported 19,000 A-Stars to Europe in the last fiscal.