Maruti Suzuki has been seeing a drop in demand of its best seller, the Alto, since the past two months now. India’s largest automaker is already working on replacing the Alto, which has been on sale since almost a decade now. The recent hike in petrol fuel prices have further reduced the demand of the Alto and Maruti Suzuki will bring in the Alto replacement in October. Whether Maruti Suzuki will call the new small car as the Alto or something else is still a mystery. The company might want to keep the Alto name limited to the K10 version, which will not be discontinued.
Our rendering of the Maruti Suzuki Alto replacement showcases how the company has taken design cues from the Ford Figo, Renault Pulse and Hyundai i20. The Alto is not a tall boy design but the replacement does seem to be heading in that direction. The overall design looks quite similar to the A-Star, which is the current generation Alto in global markets. The Alto replacement will continue to use the same 796, 3-cylinder petrol engine which produces 47 BHP and 62 Nm. The vehicle’s USP would be its pricing and fuel economy.
The Alto replacement will also address some big shortcomings of the current Alto, such as poor head room and dated design. However, don’t expect driving dynamics to improve by much as the platform will remain the same as the old Alto. This has been done to keep costs down and position the Alto replacement as an entry-level car for masses. Pricing is expected to start around Rs. 2.6 lakhs (ex-showroom, Mumbai). Will the upcoming small car help Maruti Suzuki to recover sales? That is something we can only find out by the end of the year.