Maruti Suzuki To Roll Out Automatic Gearbox Variant Of Vitara Brezza
In its bid to have a firm grip on its presence in the utility vehicle segment, Maruti Suzuki is gearing up to launch an automatic transmission variants -AMT for Diesel or CVT for Petrol- of its bestselling SUV Vitara Brezza. Estimated to be available in the price range of Rs. 8-11 lakh, it will be taking on Hyundai Creta, Ford EcoSport, Mahindra TUV 300 and a host of other automatic/semi-automatic SUVs which are positioned in the similar price bracket. The move comes amidst Tata Motors gearing up to roll out Nexon, all-new SUV, on 21st September.
It is to be mentioned that Vitara Brezza is currently available in a diesel avatar that is powered by a 1.3-Litre 4-cylinder DDiS engine capable of delivering 89bhp of power and 200 Nm of torque and is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox
A source privy to the development told BW Businessworld, “Maruti Suzuki is currently churning out 10,000 units of Brezza per month and was commanding a waiting period of 4-5 months until a few months back. But of late, its waiting period is massively coming down to only 15 days thus prompting the company to recreate the hype it had once generated during its launch. So in order to lure young buyers away from any other brand, Maruti Suzuki could introduce either an AMT variant of the existing diesel version or a CVT variant of the petrol version by the festive season. This is largely due to the arrival of the Tata Nexon SUV, which is already creating a lot of buzz in the market.”
The official spokesperson of Maruti Suzuki, when queried about the development, maintained, “We don’t give guidance on future models or technologies.”
“With the introduction of the Tata Nexon, the competition is expected to hot up in the compact SUV space. This may be the right time for Maruti Suzuki to introduce an Automatic Transmission variant in Vitara Brezza. The petrol and automatic options in this model can be game-changers for Tata Motors as many consumers may shift to Nexon as the consumers in this segment do look out for comfort along with features and style. Also with Suzuki’s new Gujarat facility getting operational, Suzuki has already increased the production of Vitara Brezza. However, the demand may not sustain long in case Maruti Suzuki doesn’t open their rest of the cards by introducing the compact SUV in Automatic and Petrol variants,” said Puneet Gupta, South Asia manager at IHS.
It may be recalled that the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza was launched in 2016 and has sold over 1.5 lakh+ units until July end. Incidentally, this is the first car which was conceptualized and designed in India by the company. With this model, the country’s largest carmaker has emerged as the largest utility vehicle maker in the first quarter of the financial year 2017-18. The company logged sales of 57,125 utility vehicles comprising models like Vitara Brezza, Ertiga and S-Cross, etc. This is 45% more than 39,348 units registered in the first quarter of FY17.
