Last Update: December 25, 2022, 14:17 IST
Suzuki S-Cross (File Photo: Maruti Suzuki)
According to the company’s Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales Shashank Srivastava, with increasing congestion in India’s cities, Maruti Suzuki India expects sales of vehicles with auto gear shift to increase further next year.
With increasing congestion in cities in India, Maruti Suzuki India According to the company’s Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Shashank Srivastava, sales of vehicles with auto gear shift are expected to pick up further next year.
The company introduced Auto Gear Shift (AGS) technology on its hatchback Celerio for the first time in 2013-14, which relieves drivers from manually changing gears using the clutch. It has so far sold a total of 7.74 lakh units of such vehicles in its portfolio.
“After introducing AGS, we have gradually expanded it across our multiple models. We believe that with increasing congestion, especially in urban areas, AGS is an addition to ease of driving. So we are confident that the technology will advance further,” Srivastava told PTI.
The company has nine models – Celerio, Alto K10, WagonR, Dzire, Ignis, Swift, Brezza, S-Presso and Baleno – that come with the AGS option.
In terms of AGS penetration, he said, “it varies between 12 percent and 23 percent across all models” and the amount between different models also “varies due to different timing of introduction”.
Celerio has sold a cumulative 2 lakh units of AGS, followed by WagonR 1.39 lakh units, Swift 1.24 lakh units, Dzire 1.01 lakh units, Alto K10 68,000 units, Ignis 49,000 units, Brezza 39,000 units, S 37,000 units of Presso and Baleno have been sold. 20,000 units.
On the growing acceptance of AGS technology, Srivastava said it is mainly due to the affordability factor. He gave the example of entry-level SUVs, where the price difference between a normal transmission and AGS is around Rs 50,000, resulting in an AGS penetration of around 19 per cent.
On the other hand, for the same variant of the vehicle with dual-clutch transmission (DCT) or continuously variable transmission (CVT) technology, the price difference is more than Rs 1.2 lakh, making the automatic transmission option less accessible to around 2 . Percent.
“People now want more ease of driving,” Srivastava said, adding that “sales of AGS vehicles will also pick up” like happened with power steering, which had a premium and it took some time for people to shift from manual to pay the premium. Felt but now everything is almost power steering”.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)