SIZE MATTERS

A new type of car buyer is changing the rules in the Indian auto industry

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

MARUTI SUZUKI JIMNY

Launching: June

Price: ₹10 lakh

Sporty and masculine, the Jimny will be part of Maruti’s push into the SUV segment, along with Fronx. Jimny will take on the Mahindra Thar in the 4x4 off-road segment and will be crucial in Maruti's shift to SUVs. 

It may give you strong vibes of the erstwhile Gypsy, but Maruti Suzuki’s Jimny is so much more than the action vehicle of choice of every cop flick in the 1990s. Once you get over the nostalgia, you will see that the Jimny is strictly in tune with the 2020s' sensibilities. Big, brawny and muscular, it takes the tough with the smooth, awash with features like door defogger, rear wiper and washer, and hill hold and hill descent control.

When India’s biggest carmaker announced its intend to launch Jimny in January, it was pivotal to its strategy to capture marketshare in the crucial sports utility vehicles (SUV), which account for 43 per cent of all passenger vehicle (PV) sales in the country. Maruti controlled barely 12 per cent of this segment. “We needed to do better in the SUV segment if we were to increase our market share,” said Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer of Maruti Suzuki. “When we looked at it last year, there were 42 competing models, but Maruti had only one— the Brezza.” While Fronx, a smaller SUV, was launched recently, Jimny would be the real thing. Even before announcing a launch date (now set for June 7), Jimny notched up 30,000 bookings.

That in itself symbolises the biggest transformation the Indian auto industry has seen in recent years—big is now beautiful.