With Invicto, Maruti Suzuki aims to capture top spot in SUV space

July 5, 2023, was a red letter day for Maruti Suzuki. Not only did India’s biggest carmaker unveil its priciest model yet—Invicto, a three-row premium SUV—the company’s stocks closed the day at an all-time high, taking its market capitalisation to Rs 3 lakh crore.

Back at its home base in the national capital, MD & CEO Hisashi Takeuchi reiterated Maruti’s aggressive plans to consolidate the company’s dominance of the Indian car market, including a total investment of Rs 2.8 lakh crore investment till 2030, which includes the 10 lakh cars a year manufacturing facility coming up in Kharkhoda in Gujarat.

As the markets closed for the day, Maruti Suzuki shares had turned around from a two-day declining streak to hit Rs 10,005 — the first time the automaker’s shares crossed the 10K mark.

The Maruti Suzuki shares gained 19 per cent this year so far.

The zoom up had probably been helped a bit by the company’s splashy Gurugram launch of its most expensive model yet, the three-row Invicto, with introductory ex-showroom prices going up to Rs 28.42 lakh.

The launch of Invicto is part of the company’s aggressive plans to capture the top spot in the sports utility vehicle (SUV) space, an area it has ignored for too long as it focused on the small and premium small car space which was its bread-and-butter for long. However, the shift in customer preferences for the above- Rs10 lakh plus range vehicles in general, and SUVs in particular, caught the market leader unawares, even as rivals like Hyundai and Tata raced ahead.

Presently, SUV is the biggest seller amongst all types of cars—a far cry from just a few years ago when conventional wisdom had it that the Indian car buyer was price conscious and hence fixated on affordable small cars. SUV sales clocked in at a robust 47 per cent of the entire car market in the April—June period, and expectations are that it will close this financial year at 49 per cent of all cars sold in the country.

Though late, Maruti has got on to the SUV race aggressively in recent months. It launched new variants of its SUV models, the Grand Vitara as well as Brezza, and unveiled two more at the Auto Expo earlier this year — Fronx, a compact SUV aimed at young adults, as well as Jimny, an all-terrain activity model that will take on Mahindra Thar’s dominance in the 4x4 segment.

The most expensive model in its portfolio, Invicto is a three-row premium SUV offering options of 7 as well as 8-seater configuration. To be sold through the Nexa premium showrooms it had launched eight years ago (interestingly, Invicto is the eighth model to be retailed through Nexa), this electric hybrid comes with all the kicks —six airbags, all disc brakes, Suzuki Connect, power tailgate, and electronic parking brake.

Maruti claims the vehicle has a fuel efficiency of up to 23 kilometres per litre.

“With its SUV-like character, Invicto delivers a combination of premium design, intelligent packaging, and an abundance of safety features and innovation. (It) will further Maruti’s vision of a cleaner, greener, sustainable and carbon neutral world,” said Takeuchi, while unveiling the new Invicto.