Maruti Suzuki counts on Victoris to take pole position in mid-size SUVs

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is counting on its newly launched mid-size sport utility vehicle (SUV), the Victoris, to emerge as the market leader in the mid-size SUV segment, a category currently dominated by the Hyundai Creta.

The Victoris, priced starting from ₹10.49 lakh (ex-showroom), is the second mid-size SUV from India’s biggest carmaker by volume.

The Grand Vitara, launched in 2022, was the first mid-size SUV offering introduced by the Japanese carmaker whose mainstay has long been small cars and hatchbacks.

“The mid-size SUV market is 1 million cars annually. We want to increase our pie in this segment. We sold around 1.10 lakh units of Grand Vitara last year. With the Victoris, our pie will go up,” says Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki. "There are 27 models in this segment. The opportunity is huge," he adds.

The Indian SUV market comprises three segments: entry (sub-4-metre), mid-size (4.3 metre) and premium (over 4.5 metre). Maruti Suzuki is the market leader in the entry-SUV segment in terms of volumes with models like Brezza and Fronx, among others.

In the mid-size SUV segment, which contributes around 40% to total SUV sales of 9 lakh units, Maruti Suzuki is not the market leader, says Banerjee. “Our aspiration is to become the market leader in SUVs,” adds Banerjee.

India’s biggest carmaker is not present in the premium SUV space which is dominated by homegrown players like Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.

SUVs currently comprise 28% of Maruti Suzuki's total sales.

While the Grand Vitara is sold through the premium Nexa retail channel, the Victoris will be available at the company's Arena showrooms, helping the carmaker address the absence of a mid-size SUV in the Arena sales network. Maruti Suzuki has over 3,300 Arena outlets compared with around 700 Nexa showrooms.

"We have two channels. We try to target customers by product positioning. We are hopeful that this will help us garner a good share in the mid-size SUV segment," said Banerjee.

The newly launched Victoris comes in multiple powertrain options: petrol, mild hybrid, strong hybrid and CNG.

When asked if the new car will aid the company’s stagnant strong hybrid sales, Banerjee says, “Being a market leader, we need to be technologically-agnostic.  We need to have our presence in all technologies. We are offering CNG, hybrid and soon EVs. We don’t push one technology over the cost of others like many OEMs do. We give options to the customer and let the customer decide."

The Japanese carmaker is betting big on CNG and strong hybrid powertrains of the Victoris. For the Grand Vitara, strong hybrid and CNG-powered variants contribute 20% each to its total sales. Deliveries of the Victoris will begin on September 22.