In the B-hatchback segment, Maruti has the upcoming Celerio diesel as well as the more premium ‘YRA’ hatchback scheduled for launches this year. While the Celerio diesel is expected to come within a month or two, the YRA is more of a festive season contender.
A report at Economic Times claims that Maruti will discontinue the Ritz from the lineup this year but they say it will make way for the YRA!
Maruti sold 34,500 units of Ritz last financial year which are better than what the car managed last fiscal. About 3000 units per month is a very respectable figure for a B+ segment hatchback. It may not be according to Maruti’s standards but in the segment it plays a lot of manufacturers strive to achieve this mark.
Our view is that YRA doesn’t have anything to do with Ritz as it will be a much more premium offering and will sit over Swift. But what may affect Ritz is the much smaller Celerio diesel, a car which will carry Suzuki’s indigenous 0.8 liter two cylinder diesel engine. Considering the prices it is expected to come at, they may be precariously close to Ritz’ pricing in India.
However, Ritz is a proper B+ segment car and Celerio is a segment lesser with a much smaller and to-be-proved engine. If you remember, a couple of years back, there was a difference of about 12,000-15,000 between Ritz and Swift variant to variant and both of them existed.
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Hence, in our view, we do NOT expect Maruti to discontinue Ritz from the market anytime soon. Probably a minor facelift will ensure it sustains its 2.5k-3k monthly figures.
