It’s been a month of new milestones for Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL). After registering record sales in the month gone by, the country’s largest carmaker also closed in on a remarkable 50 percent market share. What’s more? The company also witnessed its Baleno hatchback breach the 1 lakh sales mark and the Vitara Brezza has now added the icing on the cake by selling half a lakh units.


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Most notably, it took Maruti’s first sub-4 metre SUV only seven months since its launch in March earlier this year, to achieve this feat. The car has already been booked more than a lakh times despite the absence of a petrol variant in its lineup. But the downside of this popularity is the ever-swelling waiting period for the Vitara Brezza that currently stands at even six months in some cities.


"We have to create capacity so that this kind of mismatch doesn't happen to this extent in the future," MSIL chairman, RC Bhargava had said at the company’s annual general meeting last month. And a major part of the solution to this problem is expected to be the company’s upcoming plant in Gujarat, which will be able to manufacture around 15 lakh cars a year.


We had recently reported that the Baleno will be the first car to be manufactured in Maruti’s latest production facility. But given the increasing demand, and in turn the waiting period, for the Vitara Brezza, it’s only a matter of time that it would also be assembled in the company’s Gujarat quarters.


Currently, the Vitara Brezza comes powered by a 1.3-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged diesel engine that makes 90PS of peak power and 200 horses. Power is transmitted to the front wheels via a 5-speed manual gearbox. Moreover, the compact SUV is also set to come in a petrol avatar in the near future. 


Source: CarDekho.com