Emerging markets power Maruti ahead

Opens 200th Nexa Studio outlet in Kharkhoda, Haryana

The country’s largest carmaker Maruti-Suzuki today opened their latest Nexa Studio outlet in Kharkhoda, Haryana. This small-format sales and service outlet has allowed Maruti-Suzuki to expand their Nexa sales and service reach to over 730 touch points.

“This smaller outlet allows us to service markets beyond the Top 100 cities of India, which we describe as ‘emerging markets’”, Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Sales and Marketing, Maruti-Suzuki said. “These markets account for over 50 percent of our sales now and we intend to expand the number of such outlets from 200 today to between 600-700 by 2030-31”, he added.

The Nexa Studio is a smaller sized outlet covering an area of just 1200 square feet compared to 4000-5000 square feet for an urban Nexa showroom but it also has service support and 95 per cent of Studio outlets also have an electric vehicle charger for Maruti’s new eVITARA electric SUV.

“A Nexa Studio should be profitable for most of our dealer partners with 15-20 vehicles every month”, Banerjee added.Speaking of Maruti’s electric vehicle plans, Banerjee said that production constraints and export commitments have meant that the carmaker is going to sell a limited volume of eVITARAs until June. “We have been given an allotment of 2000 units monthly for the time being. We not only have export commitments but the same line also produces the Fronx, which is one of our best selling models”, he said.

Commenting on India’s economic growth with third-quarter GDP figures coming in at 7.8 per cent, Banerjee said that he expected growth to continue strongly. “India only has 34 cars per 1000 population and that number can only grow, so the runway for growth is still very long.”