Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) will focus on expanding its SUV portfolio — a segment making up 40 per cent of auto sales but where the company has only two models. This was stated by Hisaki Takeuchi, managing director and CEO of MSIL, at the launch of the new Brezza in New Delhi. The new Brezza with features such as the sunroof, a first for the company, will retail from Rs 7.99 lakh to Rs 13.96 lakh.

“We plan to introduce a few more SUVs that are in the pipeline. We are going to launch the jointly developed SUV with Toyota very soon. The Brezza is our sixth launch in the last eight months and reflects our confidence in the Indian market,” he said. Asked how the new product would help Maruti increase its market share, Shashank Srivastava, executive director, MSIL said: “Brezza has been the top seller in its segment for five consecutive years selling 10,000 units per month currently.”

“With the new Brezza, we look to increase our market share in this B segment even further,” said Srivastava. “Maruti Suzuki’s market share in the non-SUV segment is at all-time high 67 per cent, and in the SUV segment we have only 20 per cent market share. There are 47 brands in the SUV segment and so we need to have more products here.”

The second-generation Brezza is powered by the company’s next-gen K-series 1.5 litre petrol engine with smart hybrid technology and delivers fuel efficiency of up to 20.15 km per litre. The model comes with both manual and six-speed automatic transmission, headup display, digital 360 camera, and 40 connected features, among others.