India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki registered an impressive 191 percent growth in its utility vehicle sales in September 2016. The company sold 18,423 units of its UV models in September against the 6,331 in the same period last year.
Maruti Suzuki's UV portfolio includes SUVs Gypsy, S-Cross, Vitara Brezza and Ertiga MPV. Though the variant-wise sales report is not out yet, it is evident that Vitara Brezza is instrumental in the huge jump of sales. Despite being launched in March 2016, Vitara Brezza is the top selling SUV in India with average monthly sales of over 8,000 units. Maruti Suzuki sold 9,554 units of the Vitara Brezza in August and 10,232 units in July. The sales numbers of Vitara Brezza in June and May were 6,673 units and 7,193 units, respectively.
Riding on Vitara Brezza, Maruti Suzuki sold 91,959 units of UVs in the first six month of this financial year registering a growth of 151 percent against 36,633 units in April-September 2015.
Maruti Suzuki has sold over 50,000 units of the Vitara Brezza since its entry into the Indian market and about the same number is yet to be delivered against the confirmed orders. The current waiting period of the Vitara Brezza stands at seven months depending upon the variant. Despite an increase in the production of the compact SUV to 10,000 units from July, Maruti Suzuki is still struggling to meet the demands.
The Vitara Brezza is Maruti Suzuki's first model to be fully developed in India by its R&D team led by CV Raman. 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. It boasts of best-in-class fuel efficiency of 24.3 kmpl.
