India’s largest carmaker Maruti-Suzuki on Wednesday unveiled its latest product the S-Cross crossover and has priced the car starting from Rs8.34 lakh to Rs13.74 lakh. The S-Cross which is going to compete with the recently launched Hyundai Creta and Renault Duster, is Maruti’s entrant into this highly competitive segment.
To stand apart with the S-Cross, Maruti has also introduced a chain of new ‘premium’ brand outlets called ‘Nexa’ which will retail the S-Cross and further offerings in the premium segment from India’s largest carmaker. RS Kalsi, head of domestic marketing and sales at Maruti was buoyed up by the pricing of this vehicle which he feels is “highly competitive” and he expected the S-Cross to be a sales success.
Maruti has launched the car with two diesel engine variants, including a new to Maruti 1.6 DDiS engine as well as the 1.3 DDiS engine that already does service in several other Maruti vehicles. Kalsi said that their market research had shown that buyers in this segment had a clear bias towards diesel cars and also hinted that the 1.6 DDiS engine could potentially be fitted in other Maruti vehicles going forward.
The ‘crossover’ segment which consists of vehicles that are raised and larger than traditional hatchbacks has seen sales decline ahead of the launch of the S-Cross and Creta. However, market experts believe that these vehicles together could easily make this segment the fastest growing segment in the Indian car market which has been fairly subdued of late.