Suzuki A-Star arrives, priced around Rs 4 lakh

The much-awaited, much-hyped compact B-segment car Suzuki A-Star, has debuted. Maruti Suzuki India has lifted the wraps off its global car and intends to sell the car in the Rs 4 lakh range.

Suzuki A-Star

Maruti Suzuki India has said that the Suzuki A-Star has been priced between Rs 3.46 lakh to Rs 4.11 lakh ex-showroom in Delhi for different models. This price is an introductory offer which will be available for a few weeks. At this price, the A-Star competes well against the Hyundai i10 Kappa, its direct competitor. The top end i10 Kappa is priced some Rs 40,000 more than the A-Star.

Related: Our earlier story on the Suzuki A-Star launch

Maruti Suzuki is banking on its loyal customer base, as well as fresh potential buyers to sell the A-Star in India. It aims at selling close to 4,000 Suzuki A-Stars every month in the country. Maruti has said that the Suzuki A-Star is the first brand in the company’s stable to be fitted with the K-series engine that emits about 109 gms of Co2 per km.

It is expected that the arrival of the A-Star will help Maruti Suzuki India to push up its sales figures from the current low levels. The car maker had seen sales plummet by 8 per cent during October 2008.

The Suzuki A-Star will be called in different names across different continents. While the Indian market will know the car by the A-Star name, another car major Nissan will resell the model under its product umbrella in certain markets re-christened as Pixo. Meanwhile Suzuki will sell the same model internationally as Suzuki Alto. In India, the Alto will continue to sell alongside the Suzuki A-Star.

Post Suzuki A-Star, the carmaker is set to make a splash with a new model called Splash. Maruti Suzuki’s plans to continue with the thrust on compact cars will continue with the A-Star and the Splash. Though the company has seen immense success with its Swift DZire and SX4 models, it has reiterated that the focus on compact cars will continue and will assume added levels of strength.

Maruti Suzuki had last year exported about 50,000 cars to about 40 countries. Strategic models like A-Star are expected to add to the numbers and might help it export over 1 lakh units to Europe every year, and sell  about 1 million cars in the domestic market by 2010, it is believed.

The company also has a contract to manufacture around 50,000 units of the new model for Nissan, which will be branded with a different name in the overseas markets. For the domestic market, the company hopes to sell around 50,000 units of the A-Star. The current price of the Suzuki A-Star should make it an easy job for Maruti.