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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, AUG 20: With the introduction of the new models, Maruti Udyog Ltd plans to have a car at every Rs 20,000 price difference, the newly-appointed MUL managing director, Jagdish Khattar, said here in a press conference today.
From Khattar8217;s press briefing it appeared that Maruti will offer more variants with different engine capacities and features of all its models in order to have a car at every Rs 20,000 price difference from the MUL stable. To begin with, MUL is launching Zen Classic on Monday. Zen Classic will have a improved interiors and differently-shaped head and rear lamps.
MUL has registered a 15.7 per cent growth in sales during the first four months of the current fiscal, selling around 121,000 units during the period. Whereas the industry grew at 36.8 per cent, Maruti8217;s market share has dipped by over 10 percentage points over the last few months. According to Khattar, no company can hope to maintain a market share of 80 per cent. But the share of MUL, according to him, will certainly remain over 50 per cent.
Asked if MUL will launch a model cheaper than Maruti 800, Khattar said that any new model that is brought into the country cannot be cheaper than the Maruti 800 8212; which is the cheapest car in the world and is produced at a cost of around 3,000 or Rs 1,23,000 8212; exclusive of all taxes and duties. Talking on thepopularity of Wagon R in Japan, Khattar mentioned that the car 8212; which is a 660cc entry-level car in Japan 8212; has overtaken Toyota Corolla over the last 15-16 months in terms of sales. Toyota Corolla was the largest selling car in Japan for the last 15 to 16 years.
With the launch of its new models, MUL is targeting at a turnover of Rs 10,000 crore-plus by the 2000-01. 8220;We expect to end 1999-2000 with a turnover of a shade below Rs 9,000 crore,8221; he added. However, Khattar said that with fresh investments undertaken by MUL on the new plant and due to the price cuts in December 1998, the profitability of the company is sure to be affected in the current fiscal. 8220;We have decide to operate on lower margins for the next four-to-five years,8221; the new MUL chief said.
Maruti is confident of touching a total sales figure of 400,000 by the end of the current fiscal as against around 330,000 units sold in 1998-99. According to Khattar Maruti-800, Zen and Omni will corner the major chunk of this growth insales.
Zen Classic launch on Monday
Maruti Udyog Ltd will launch a new variant of Zen on Monday 8212; christened Zen Classic. The new Zen variant would be Euro-I compliant with different looks and improved interiors.
Zen Classic would be slightly costlier than the existing LX and VX versions of the Zen that carry a price tag of Rs 2.89 lakh and 3.40 lakh ex-showroom, Delhi respectively, sources said. The head and rear lamps of the new Zen would have different designs. The interiors would also be different with new seats and a different dashboard.
