Click to play videoNew Delhi: Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car maker is betting big on its new offering, A star.
It is in competition to Hyundai's i-10 and the carmaker hopes it will buck the trend of flagging sales.
In the last few months, Maruti's small car sales haven’t been good. In fact, the real growth drivers have been in the A 3 segment, with the A Star Maruti is hoping to take on Hyundai’s i 10.
How different or better is Maruti’s A Star from Hyundai’s i10?
For India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India, sales of the maruti 800 fell by about 18 per cent in the April to October period.
The real growth drivers have been SX4, Dzire and Swift and this segment saw a growth of 37 per cent in the same period.
Maruti A star, is the fifth global model from Maruti Suzuki to be launched in less than 40 months.
The car has an all new 3 cylinder, 1 litre K series engine. One litre engine that gives a power of 67 hp, more than Zen and Wagon R. A star claims to give an average of 19.6 km/litre.
The car comes in 3 variants and the base version has both power steering and AC unlike Hyundai i10 whose base version does not have power steering.
A star will be made in 200 variants and exported to 150 countries across Europe, Middle east , Latin America, Asia, Australia, and Africa.
It will be exported under the name of Suzuki Alto and Suzuki Celerio. Nissan also plans to market the same car under the name Nissan Pixo in middle East and African markets.
A star will also contribute half of Maruti Suzuki's overall export target of 2 lakh units by 2011and 2012.
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