Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), the country’s largest carmaker, said demand for premium hatchbacks remains resilient despite intensifying competition from sub-four-metre sports utility vehicles (SUVs).
The company said sales of its premium hatchbacks continue to remain comparable with those of its SUVs, suggesting that the two segments cater largely to different sets of buyers despite an overlap in their price points.
“Today, the premium hatchback segment contributes to the tune of 50,000 vehicles per month on average. Out of this 50,000 units, every 3rd vehicle happens to be the Baleno,” said Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Limited on the sidelines of the new Baleno launch.
MSIL on Saturday launched the new Baleno at a starting price of Rs 6.09 lakhs with major cosmetic changes, a new advanced Z12E engine and first-in-segment Level 2 ADAS safety technology.
Banerjee said that while SUVs now account for 57% of the total PV market, with compact SUVs being one of the largest sub-segments, there remains strong demand for premium hatchbacks in the market as well. “For our newly launched Brezza SUV, we got 60,000 bookings in the very first 6 weeks. But at the same time, we are selling 16,500 Balenos per month. Last month, we did Breza around 17,000 units. The point I’m trying to make is that India is a big market and there are different sets of customers for every segment,” added Banerjee.
While Baleno and Swift are the best-selling models in the premium hatchback segment, other nameplates include Tata Altroz, Hyundai i20 and Toyota Glanza (rebadged Baleno).
Banerjee stated that even in the one category below, hatchbacks are going neck and neck with SUVs. “If you take the SUVs, I think Punch did around 22,000 last month. In comparison, Swift and Wagon R did 22,000 and 21,000 units respectively. The perception that only SUVs are going is wrong. Barring one or two models, most SUVs are not doing well,” said Banerjee.
MSIL said that its gain in market share, to the tune of more than 2% this year, is mostly coming from the small cars and SUVs. “Hatchbacks are one of the fastest-growing segments this year…I think the biggest factor that led to our market share increase is that we commissioned 2 of our production lines. We are getting more vehicles, and pushing our market share up. At present, we have a backlog of 180,000 vehicles,” said Banerjee.
Going forward, MSIL expects strong sales momentum to continue but the growth rate may taper down from October 2026 as the higher base effect of last year will come into play. The PV industry registered exponential growth in October 2025 as it was the first full month after new GST rates came into effect from 22 September 2025.
“Whatever is going around the Strait of Hormuz, the commodity prices are going up, forcing everyone to increase prices. Still, I think the market has absorbed these price hikes and moved ahead…unless there is some major headwind which I am not aware of, I don’t see any reason why growth will not continue,” said Banerjee.
The carmaker’s latest offering, the new Baleno, comes with the Level 2 ADAS technology. Equipped with a radar and camera combination, the ADAS system offers advanced driver assistance features including Advanced Emergency Braking (AEB), Lane Keep Assist, Lane Departure Prevention, Lane Departure Warning, Adaptive Cruise Control, High Beam Assist (HBA), Vehicle Sway Warning and Forward Collision Warning.
The car is powered by a new Advanced Z12E powertrain with a maximum power output of 61 kW @ 5700 rpm and 112.4 Nm of peak torque @ 4500 rpm.
Available with 5-speed manual (MT) and Auto Gear Shift (AGS) automatic transmission options, the new Baleno offers fuel efficiency of 23.80 km/l for the MT model and 24.77 km/l for the AGS model, an improvement of 6.4% and 7.9% in fuel efficiency, respectively over its predecessor.
The Baleno S-CNG is available with the Z12E engine and 5-speed manual transmission delivers a fuel efficiency of 33.61 km/kg in S-CNG (MT), an improvement of 9.8% over its predecessor.