Maruti Suzuki Baleno booking reaches 70,000 units, waiting period goes up to 5 months

Maruti Suzuki's Baleno has been yielding good response in the market and the premium hatchback even took over the sales of its main rival Hyundai Elite i20 in December 2015. In December 2015, Maruti sold 10,572 units of the Baleno adding another successful model to its lineup.

Underlining the overwhelming response to the premium hatchback, Baleno's booking has now reached nearly 70,000 units reports AutocarIndia. The huge response has also resulted in an increase in the aiting period which stands now at five to six months.

"We did not anticipate such a response for the Baleno. The waiting period of close to six months is likely to continue. However, we are in talks with our production team to see how quickly we can ramp up the production," Partho Banerjee, Senior Vice President (Nexa Channel), Marketing & Sales, told Autocar India.

The waiting period is expected to remain at five to six months as the manufacturer has started exporting the vehicle to foreign markets. The Baleno hatchback is currently made only in India and the vehicle will be exported to European, African and South American markets. The proposed increase in production is expected to restrict the waiting period from going beyond six months.

Maruti Suzuki recently increased the price of the Baleno in the range of Rs 5000 to Rs 12,000 along with the price hike of the complete line-up. According to the new pricing, the Baleno base petrol model starts at Rs 5.11 lakh and goes up to 8.16 lakh for top-end diesel trim (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Under the hood, Maruti Baleno includes 1.2-litre K-Series petrol engine and 1.3-litre DDiS diesel engine. While the 1.2-litre K-Series petrol engine is tuned to develop 83bhp and 115Nm of torque, the 1.3-litre DDiS diesel mill churns out 74bhp and 190Nm of torque. Both the engines are mated to a five-speed manual transmission, and the petrol engine is also available with CVT automatic gearbox.