Maruti Suzuki Ertiga MPV was launched in India with a bang on April 12, 2012 and the company was sure of the success. Proving the forecast right, the MPV bookings have reached the 15,000 units milestone within a week from the day of its launch. While the bookings are going sky high, Maruti is eyeing to make other nations fall in ‘LUV’ with Ertiga. Maruti Ertiga launch in Indonesia is expected to receive a similar response as the MPV got in India. A car that was designed to meet the needs and wants of the Indian consumer is now going to make its way to the Indonesian market through Suzuki Indomobil Motor(SIM), as the country is one of the key markets for the people carriers.
Figuratively, MPVs in Indonesia has a stake of near about 60% in the total car sales and with Ertiga, Suzuki is going to make its presence felt in the booming MPV segment of Indonesia. The company is set with the armor and plans to sell over 50,000 units of Ertiga in the first year itself. Cost is a major issue everywhere in the world, therefore Ertiga will not be exported from India, and rather the company will build the MPV locally by SIM. The company would export the MPV as a Completely-Knocked Down unit and assemble it in Indonesia. The first batch of the car will be exported from India in the month of May and then the assembling will be done in Indonesia.
Maruti has plans to roll out Ertiga in the other ASEAN markets as well as the demand for a multipurpose vehicle in these countries is quite high. On the other hand, major markets like Europe and Australia, which have hinted their liking to such low cost MPV has, are not being thought of for the time being. The price tag of Maruti MPV Ertiga in India is tagged at Rs.6.17 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai) and the company in order to amplify the demand has decided to increase the diesel trim production by 1.5 million units as the Indian market for now is bent towards them. Maruti predicts that 80% sales of Ertiga would be from the diesel trim with the rest coming from the petrol variant.
