India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki posted the company's highest ever monthly sales in the domestic market in July with 13.9 percent increase. Maruti Suzuki's utility vehicle sales also saw a drastic growth of 151.3 percent riding on the Vitara Brezza compact SUV.
The Indo-Japanese company sold 17, 382 units of utility vehicles in July 2016, against 6,916 units in July 2015. The UV range of Maruti Suzuki includes Vitara Brezza, S-Cross, Ertiga, Grand Vitara and the Gypsy. The Vitara Brezza launched in March clocks an average monthly sales of over 7,000 units and it is clear that the compact SUV has single handedly pushed UV sales of the company.
In June, Maruti Suzuki's UV sales growth was limited to 75.5 percent due to the production halt over Subros fire incident and week-long maintenance shutdown at the beginning of the month. In May, UV sales registered 144.2 percent growth compared to the same month last year. The trend of steep increase in UV sales of Maruti Suzuki started after the arrival of the Vitara Brezza.
Vitara Brezza is the best selling SUV in the country at present. It has received over 1 lakh bookings so far and the waiting period now ranges between six and nine months. Available only with diesel engine, the compact SUV is powered by a 200 DDis 1248cc diesel engine that develops 88.5bhp at 4,000rpm and 200Nm of torque at 1,750rpm mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. Vitata Brezza also boasts of a best-in-class fuel efficiency of 24.3 kmpl and the compact SUV has been priced starting at Rs. 6.99 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
Maruti Suzuki is also considering the petrol powered Vitara Brezza. As per the reports, compact SUV's petrol version will enter domestic market in the festive season.