Finally, Maruti wake to up to competition and introduced new version of its popular 800 cc car Alto. After the exit from other 800cc popular Model Maruti 800, Alto is biggest volume generator for Maruti Sazuki. However recently, Alto saw big completion from other small cars like chevrolet Spark and Tata Nano. In last few years, Chevrolet Spark slowly started eating market of Alto in big way because of aggressive promotion by Chevrolet. Chevrolet Spark has a much powerful 995 cc engine, stylish looks and many attractive schemes as compared to Maruti Alto 800cc. Therefore, many people opted for Spark instead of Maruti Alto.
On the other hand, many people started opting for Tata Nano because of its cheaper price. Therefore, Maruti started facing heat of competition and they realised that if Alto fails in market then Maruti will definitely fail in retaining more than 50% market share in Indian car market. To solve this problem and give Alto a new life, Maruti decided to introduce new powerful Alto K 10 with powerful 998 cc engine which gives peak power of 68ps@6200rpm and also produce high torque of 90Nm@3500 rpm low emissions and Low NVH. With this powerful engine Maruti’s Alto K 10 can attain top speed of 100 Kmph in just 13.3 seconds. Moreover, all this comes without making any compromise on fuel efficiency for which Alto is already known. As per Maruti statement, new Alto K 10 gives fuel efficiency of 20.2 km per litre.
Price of Alto K 10 is almost same as of Spark; however, Alto K 10 is definite winner when it comes to mileage because spark gives fuel efficiency of 17 Km. Therefore, Maruti has succeeded to some extent in decreasing competition from Spark because mileage lover common Indians will definitely like to buy new Alto. Competition from Tata Nano will remain same and Maruti can decrease it by decreasing prices of Maruti Alto 800. However, there is also on major drawback with new Alto K 10 that Maruti has not changed look of new Alto and almost maintained similar look which can give some old image to Alto K 10. Overall, introduction of Alto K 10 is likely to benefit Maruti in retaining its Market share; however, for long run Market cannot afford to depend on this introduction.
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