Thanks to Vitara Brezza & Baleno, Maruti Suzuki sitting on 1.5 lakh bookings

MSIL currently has an order backlog of around 1.5 lakh units. The new Dzire, Baleno and the Vitara Brezza are the three models responsible for pending orders swelling to that number. The figures were revealed by MSIL over a conference call to investors.

Out of the three, the biggest contributor to the backlog is the Vitara Brezza. As of now, the Maruti Vitara Brezza has a maximum waiting period of 22 weeks. The compact SUV has contributed to Maruti Suzuki gaining 50.5 % of the total market share in the PV sector during the first quarter of this fiscal (April-June). It has also spearheaded Maruti's charge to the top spot in the utility vehicles segment. MSIL has sold 1.5 lakh units of the Vitara Brezza since its launch in March 2016.

The new Dzire, launched in May, commands an average waiting period of 16 weeks, with about 50,000 bookings reported in the month of launch. Customers still have to wait around 16 weeks if they wish to purchase a Maruti Baleno, a car that was launched a little less than two years ago in October 2015.

The commencement of operations at the Gujarat plant should have ideally helped bring down the pending orders, but MSIL chairman RC Bhargava said in April that backlogs will continue to due to the market demand for Maruti cars. The new facility rolled out 24,000 units during the Q1, FY 2017-18. The plant has a maximum production capacity of 7.5 lakh units annually. MSIL is also setting up a second assembly line, which will become operational in 2019.

Models in the pipeline for Maruti include S-Cross facelift due to launch before the end of 2017, new Swift due in early 2018, Celerio facelift and a petrol variant of the Maruti Vitara Brezza.