Baleno beats Elite i20 to become No.1 premium compact car

The competition between India’s two major auto manufacturers is getting very intense. From past couple of years, Hyundai’s Elite i20 has made a landmark sales in the premium compact car segment. The fortunes are now moving towards Maruti Suzuki, all thanks to the company’s latest premium compact ‘Baleno’. just after months of its launch through Nexa showrooms, the car has overtaken Hyundai’s best-seller ‘Elite i20‘.

Without doubt, the all new Maruti Baleno is one of Maruti’s most ambitious products and is the mainstay for Nexa channel at present, which is particularly aimed at premium and upmarket customers.

Maruti Suzuki reportedly sold 10,572 Balenos in the month of December as compared to 10,379 Hyundai Elite i20 by Hyundai, according to automobile industry body SIAM. In the month of November, Maruti Suzuki sold 9,074 Baleno as against 10,074 Elite i20 by Hyundai India.

The competition is just not present in the premium car segment, the company is also focussing heavily on the SUV segment. While Hyundai is going pretty strong with the help of newly-launched ‘Creta’, Maruti Suzuki would be unveiling the ‘Vitara Brezza’ at Delhi Auto Expo next month. The company also plans to commercially bring the SUV during the month of March.

Under the hood, Maruti Baleno carries a 1.2-litre petrol engine and a 1.3-litre diesel variant with best-in-class safety features like dual air bags and ABS(Anti-lock Braking System) as standard was launched by Maruti Suzuki on October 26th with a pretty aggressive entry price of INR 4.99 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the entry petrol variant (this went up to Rs 5.11 lakh after a price hike earlier this month).

The base diesel variant of Baleno costs INR 6.21 lakhs. Hyundai Elite i20’s base petrol variant costs Rs 5.36 lakh, while the diesel version comes for around 6.47 lakh.

Mr Partho Banerjee who is the senior VP at Maruti Suzuki and who heads the Nexa channel said,