Small Car Segment Turns Turf for Big Battles

India’s biggest car manufacturers of India are fighting pitched battles over positioning of their hatchbacks.  Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motors which have the most successful small cars of the country, are locked in a wars of words. The new war apparently sparked off after the launch of Maruti Suzuki Ritz. The pricing of the car currently places it in between Hyundai i10 and i20.

Auto analysts say that Maruti Suzuki Ritz fills the gap between Hyundai i10 and i20 like a perfect jigshaw puzzle. They claimed that Maruti Suzuki devised the pricing strategy to eat into the market share of the rival company. The Ritz is bigger than i10 and also comes with a diesel engine but is smaller than the Hyundai i20 which may be appealing to some buyers. The price positioning of the cars has led many people to conclude that Ritz is a rival of i20. Now Hyundai has come out with a phamplet highlighting the ten differences between Ritz and the i10.

Hyundai denies that there is any competition between Ritz and i10. In the international markets, Hyundai i10 is compared to Splash(as Ritz is known in overseas markets). Hyundai has three small car like i10, i20 and Getz Prime, which do not trip over each other and has enough place to showcase their merits.

Maruti Suzuki too has clarified that it had to consider Ritz position viz-a-viz Swift hatchback. The Swift hatchback has been the fastest selling car in the stable. As Ritz is based on the Swift platforms and has some similar features, Maruti had to devise a new pricing strategy. Positioning the new car alongside the highly successful Swift would have cast a shadow over it. As such Maruti Suzuki offered it with prices that is below Swift to make it more appealing consumers. It also helped Ritz neatly steer away overlapping Swift. Maruti claims that, the pricing strategy incidentally fell into the category between the two Hyundai cars. The company says that Ritz was launched with an introductory price, which could be revised at a later date.

The competition does not end there and extends on to the advertising segment. Maruti Suzuki launched a new ad campaign for Ritz, called ‘Live the moment.’ Hyundai campaigns highlight individual comfort and cool quotient, apart from the individualistic character of its four small cars. The i20 is shown as an uber cool style statement for urban lifestyle. The campaign worked wonders for Hyundai, which has reported sale of 2850 units of i20s in May alone. The diesel version is expected to sell in higher numbers.

While Maruti offers eight small cars, Hyundai Motors offers four hatchbacks - Getz Prime, Santro, i10 and i20. Apart from these new premium hatchbacks like the Honda Jazz, Fiat Grande PUntoi and Skoda Mini car are making their entry into the country. The gap between any two models is shrinking fast and the car manufacturers are forced fall into such rivalry to highlight their differences. The battle between the biggest brands is only the beginning of a new trend in the auto industry.