Maruti Suzuki has been the consistent seller with the Ertiga in the mid-sized MPV space for a long time now. Without directly competing against the Toyota Innova, the Ertiga carved a niche of its own in the segment and has been favoured for its frugal engines and the capability of seating seven in comfort. However, the Ertiga will finally face some real competition with the arrival of the Mobilio in the same space and the company is making sure to protect its market share as much as possible in the MPV segment.
In order to counter the Mobilio’s sales before hand, Maruti Suzuki is offering the Ertiga with a bunch of discounts of around Rs. 70,000/- inclusive of a cash discount, exchange bonus and corporate discount added to the package. The discount schemes come in play despite the fact that the Ertiga easily manages 5000 units per month and has been consistently selling well. While discounting is a more evident on low selling models, using it for a high volume product only goes out to show Maruti’s desperation to retain its market share. The discounts come in addition to the Ertiga special edition variant that was launched last week.
The Honda Mobilio has been developed to slot in between the Ertiga and Innova, but it is the former that will see a major impact on its sales. With Honda’s reliability on offer and positive reviews coming from all corners, the Mobilio is at the receiving end of the cash register. In terms of powertrain, the Mobilio is powered by a 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol engine producing 119 PS and a 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel engine that produces 100 PS of power. Both the engines are paired to a 5-speed manual transmission.
Not only does the Mobilio employ slightly bigger powerplants than the Ertiga, it is also more fuel efficient than the latter with an ARAI certified efficiency figure of 17.3 km/l for the petrol and 24.2 km/l for the diesel. However, the Ertiga still undercuts the competition in terms of pricing with the base variant priced at Rs. 5.80 lakhs, while the Mobilio is expected to be launched with a starting price of Rs. 6.49 lakhs (all prices ex-showroom, Delhi). The Mobilio is scheduled for launch on 23rd July.
