Maruti Suzuki’s premium dealership chain NEXA has been successful in meeting the automaker’s expectations and sales are further expected to improve with the Ciaz facelift and Ignis to arrive at the premium dealerships.
Maruti Suzuki launched a chain of premium dealerships NEXA along with the S-Cross with an aim to improve the buying experience for its premium car customers. However, the move did not prove to be successful until the all-new Baleno was added to the showroom in October. In addition to the S-Cross and Baleno, the next cars to be sold at the premium dealership will be the Ciaz facelift and the upcoming Ignis compact crossover.
Maruti Suzuki started with 95 NEXA outlets in 2015 and is planning to open 100 more in the coming 12 months. The outlets sold around 17,000 units of the S-Cross and 23,000 units of the Baleno hatchback till December. While it contributed only 3.39 percent to Maruti’s total sales in September, the figure grew to 11.29 percent last month. The automaker expects the NEXA chain to contribute around 15-17 percent in total sales this year. The upcoming Ignis which will be priced below the Baleno and is expected to help in achieving this target with a number of first-in-class features.
A huge amount was invested by Maruti Suzuki for opening NEXA dealerships in upmarket regions with professionally trained staff. The automaker hired people with experience in fields like hospitality, airline and so on. Employees from dealerships of other luxury automakers were also hired. However, this does not seem to help in improving the buying experience as many buyers are not satisfied with the service at NEXA.
The Maruti Baleno is a huge hit among buyers who want something more premium than the Swift but wanted to stick with the Indian automaker. However, the Baleno has been criticised for the lack of power and hence the company is planning to bring a more powerful diesel variant which will produce 90 HP from the same 1.3-litre engine along with a new 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol variant that was recently caught testing. Maruti’s next launch is the Vitara Brezza compact SUV that will be showcased at the upcoming Auto Expo, but will be sold via regular dealerships.
