Maruti may replace old segments with new ones

New Delhi: To keep pace with fast changing customer preferences, the country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India said that it is ready to demolish traditional categories while challenging itself to create new segments.

The company, which launched on Friday its premium urban compact vehicle Ignis targeted at the millennials and priced between Rs 4.59 lakh and Rs 7.8 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), said it is critical that the company was “alive to the present and ready for the future,” retaining the positives from the past.

“We are aware that the life and priorities of our customers are fast evolving. If we have to keep pace, we must demolish traditional categories and think afresh. Just like the customer is thinking,” Maruti Suzuki India managing director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said. He added that it’s been often asked if Maruti Suzuki is shifting focus from its core segments towards premium.

“My response to this question is...the challenging spirit at Maruti Suzuki. We have taken this challenge to create newer segments to fulfil the wishes of our customers,” he said.

“While we retain the positives from the past, it is more critical that we are alive to the present and ready for the future. This has defined our working style in the last few years as we move towards our medium-term goal of two million unit sales in 2020,” he said.

He said the Ignis “shatters the existing categories in the Indian car market” and “challenges conventional design.”