Maruti Suzuki is on a verge to lose market share with competitors directly putting up their products to eat up Maruti’s sales. Recently, we saw Honda introducing the Amaze, pitched head on against the Maruti Swift DZire with aggressive pricing to attract buyers. Honda has planned many rivals targeting a wide range of segments. In order to maintain and increase the market share, Maruti Suzuki has some plans for the small car segment. The automaker is planning to introduce a premium version of the WagonR in India, which is known as WagonR Stingray.
The WagonR itself has done good numbers for Maruti Suzuki with consistent average monthly sales of around 12,000 units but lately, the tall boy has started losing attention in the market with diesel engines becoming popular. The WagonR Stingray would be sold alongside the standard WagonR with a slightly premium price and positioning. It is likely to be launched early in the second half of this year and the automaker expects a boost in its sales chart with the WagonR brand.
The Japanese market gets the WagonR Stingray with a smaller 660cc engine but the India-spec model will get a frugal and powerful 3-cylinder 1.0-litre K-Series petrol engine that also powers the A-Star and Alto K10. Maruti Suzuki would also offer the WagonR Stingray with CNG and LPG options that are also available in the current WagonR. A compact diesel engine from Maruti Suzuki is currently under development, so we don’t expect a diesel powered WagonR anytime soon.
While the Japanese variant is mated to an automatic transmission, the Indian variant would be available with a manual transmission for its normal trim levels initially. The WagonR Stingray has a new aggressive design language with a sleek exterior profile. The interiors will also look premium over the existing model with additional features.
Source – Economic Times