The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), in its efforts to become a serious utility vehicle player, completed a major milestone on Monday with its top-selling SUV — Vitara Brezza — crossing the 5 lakh unit sales mark in just 47 months since its launch.
Brezza is currently priced in the range of Rs 7.63 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) and Rs 10.38 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). MSIL has achieved the mark even though it is yet to launch a petrol option for the highly popular model.
According to sales data, Brezza has consistently managed to maintain average monthly sales of around 10,000 units despite facing strong competition from the likes of the Hyundai Venue, Tata Mahindra XUV300, Tata Nexon and Ford EcoSport.
While Hyundai’s 2019 debutant Venue dominated the market for a while, Brezza snatched back the top position in the sub compact UV segment in December with a huge margin.
MSIL had sold 13,658 units of the Brezza in December 2019, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 41 per cent as against 9,667 units of the model sold in the same month last year. In comparison, Hyundai sold 9,521 units of the Venue in the same month.
Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), MSIL, said that the Brezza, designed and developed by the team at Maruti Suzuki using Suzuki core technology, has struck the right chord with Indian customers.
“Five lakh unit sales in just 47 months is testimony of the customer’s increasing preference for stylish and feature-packed compact SUVs. We are confident that Vitara Brezza will continue to win hearts of customers across India,” Srivastava said.
Going forward, MSIL is expected to launch the facelifted version of the Brezza during the upcoming Auto Expo in February this year. According to reports, the SUV will be equipped with a 1.5-litre K15 Smart Hybrid petrol engine, the same unit that powers Maruti’s sedan Ciaz. The unit churns out 105 hp and 138 Nm of torque.
At present, Brezza is powered by the BS4-compliant, 4-cylinder, 1.3-litre DDiS 200 diesel engine that delivers 89 bhp and 200 Nm of torque. MSIL had earlier stated that it would stop selling diesel-powered vehicles once the BS-VI emission regime comes into effect from April 1, 2020.
Brezza, along with the Ertiga, S-Cross and XL-6, also helped MSIL reduce the impact of the demand slowdown faced by the auto sector. While the company’s mini segment fell 41.3 per cent year-on-year in the April-December period to 178,404 units, the fall in sales of UVs was just 5.2 per cent during the same period.
Last month, Maruti had registered a 17.7 per cent rise in demand for its UVs. Design-wise, Maruti claims that Brezza is the first vehicle to bring in concepts like a dual colour scheme, floating roof and a SMART PLAY infotainment system to compact SUVs.
“Brezza complies with advanced safety regulations, including pedestrian safety. The compact SUV comes loaded with new safety features comprising dual front airbags, ABS with EBD, high-speed warning alert, ISOFIX child restraint system, reverse parking sensors and front seat belt pre-tensioners and force limiters, features which are standard across all variants,” MSIL said.
Rs 7.63-10.4 L is the current price range of the available variants of the Brezza (ex-showroom) 13,658 units of the Vitara Brezza were sold in the month of December 2019 alone
Under the hood
At present, Brezza is powered by the BS4-compliant, 4-cylinder, 1.3-litre DDiS 200 diesel engine that delivers 89 bhp and 200 Nm of torque. MSIL had earlier stated that it would stop selling diesel-powered vehicles once the BS-VI emission regime comes into effect from April 1, 2020. Going forward, MSIL is expected to launch the facelifted version of the Vitarra Brezza during the upcoming Auto Expo in February.