[volkman10]

Suzuki is evaluating 2 new brands for India.

- Cars may sport Nexa brand

- Another badge will target younger customers.

Suzuki and Maruti are discussing the revamped strategy, which they feel is critical for the local unit to maintain its dominance of the Indian market through 2030

Suzuki Motor Corp. is exploring the possibility of having two more brands in India, emulating Japanese rivals Honda Motor Co. Ltd, Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd that sell vehicles under more than one brand name

company is deliberating is to carve out Nexa, its premium chain of dealerships, into a separate brand, with vehicles under it possibly sporting a new badge in the future. The company is also evaluating the possibility of a third brand to attract consumers in the 25-35 age bracket

The process of building a separate brand for Nexa would start from 2022-23, when the life cycle of the current products in Nexa would come to an end

Link

[GTO]

I thought they already have three brands = Maruti, Suzuki & Nexa .

On a serious note, I'll buy the news of Nexa-branded cars, but no way in hell will they launch another brand targeted at youngsters only. No one has succeeded in doing that, not even Toyota and its Scion brand on which the big T spent billions. The younger crowd is anyway not interested in cars that much and for those youngsters who are, young = cheap = Maruti will do just fine.

To expand its market, Hyundai is bringing in Kia. It's easy for them as Kia is now an established player with a distinct brand & line of products. Without that, to create a new brand from scratch today is too darn difficult.

[CliffHanger]

I think Maruti is getting threatened by Kia from Hyundai, and rightly so.

Kia is most likely to succeed considering its Hyundai backing in terms of Technology, Money and Hyundai's sheer expertise on Indian market, and this can slowly erode into Maruti's market share. Kia is most likely to offer varied set of products, a bit different from the routine, which in turn will make Hyundai's offerings, on the whole, huge.

Best course for Maruti would be to think of what they can do with Toyota. Maruti is just too small in terms of technology capabilities or product offerings, and you cannot rely on your past laurels for very long.

[Thermodynamics]

I think it is just about the image. The growth rate they anticipate i.e. 10 million by 2030 appears reasonable. Even though the growth of rental cars and taxi conglomerates slow up vehicle ownerships, the growth is certain. For example, the advanced countries have good established rental car system as well as efficient taxi services. Despite all that, the sales of new vehicles is way higher than India. I think the major driving force is economy. Indian economy if continues to grow at 7%, the automobile sales and infra-structure should follow proportionally. The present slump is temporary and sooner than later it would spring back. There is a reason why MG and Kia are getting in for a share of pie. There is a reason why petrochemical giants from all over the world have started circling Indian airspace.

Coming back to MSIL, the image needs correction. So far they have been able to sell 1.5 million out of 3 million. But if they need to sell 5 million out of 10 million it can't be the same game. For example, even if we believe MSIL would succeed in retaining its market share at 50% by 2030, the sheer numbers are so high that the other players will be easily doing 2 million or 1.5 million and would be running at full capacity just the way MSIL does it today. So the advantage of scale would be available to many players. The game will be totally different.

If they got to survive, they need to diversify and change the image of cheap. This is probably why they are experimenting such things. This is probably also the reason why Mahindra and Tata are trying to intrude into premium space.

[padmrajravi]

This may be part of a big image makeover exercise. Maruti's notorious light build is slowly being noticed by customers now. And other manufactures are making it a point to specifically capitalize on that point. Different brands may help them overcome this. Separate brands for the budget conscious and quality conscious customers . Nexa was aimed exactly at this and it makes sense to carve it into a different entity altogether.



But I do not understand , what is so specific about 25-35 age group to have a separate brand for them. It would make more sense to have a different brand for adventure /outdoor type of customers and bring the likes of Jimny to India.

[fx45]

Wont be surprised if Six-seat Ertiga becomes "Maruti Suzuki Ertiga Sport" and launches under "Suzuki Sport moniker" and then later Baleno RS becomes Baleno Sport upon launch.

Suzuki Sport brand Already out in Indonesia.

[GeneralJazz]

I always felt that this would be the next logical step once they came out the concept of Nexa. With the 2022-23 timeline, they do have ample time to badge engineer some cars from Toyota's international buffet. Maybe the hybrids too might be branded Nexa. A separate badge might help them move up the segments.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by GeneralJazz

--. With the 2022-23 timeline, they do have ample time to badge engineer some cars from Toyota's international buffet. Maybe the hybrids too might be branded Nexa. A separate badge might help them move up the segments.

Yes, they would have many options then.

1. Existing as is Arena

2. As in Nexa , could add more cars from..
- Toyota badged cars
- Vitara

3. EV's and Hybrids

4. Sports - Swiift Sport/ Ertiga Sport / Jimny /...

[DaptChatterjee]

Nexa is already struggling with just one performing model (Baleno). The sale will go down further (albeit temporarily) when they would be without a diesel engine. IMHO, It does not make too much sense to have three brands unless they add more to their Portfolio (Jimny, Vitara, Swift Sport etc).

Buyers who are opting for other brands, are doing it mostly for two reasons-
1. Poor build quality
2. Lack of competitive options from Maruti Suzuki in the respective segment

If Maruti addresses those two concerns, I am sure they would retain their market share and keep the dealers happy too.

[volkman10]

Maruti sets up New Mobility Division to participate in EV race.

The automaker’s move is akin to setting up of Truevalue business, Nexa division,small commercial vehicle divisions, which were carved out as a separate vertical within the company for a sharper focus.

This new team will report into Shashank Srivastava, Senior ED, sales and marketing. Also, to accelerate effort in the area of Digitalisation - a new division called Business Transformation has been formed.

The new division will help India’s largest car maker give more concerted focus to make up for the lost time and regain the confidence of core customers, which have been drifting away due to new offerings of the competition.

The formation of new vertical means the company will be making a new pool of resource base which has specialized skills and domain experts working on new emerging technologies that would result in lower lead time for the company to respond to competition, particularly at a time features that generate eyeballs in the first year of adoption

The concentrated focus by formation of new verticals will aid to cater to the demand of its customer which has more money in its pocket and not just looking at the value proposition for buying a car.

Link

[shortbread]

I think what maruti really needs is a more aspirational model portfolio than working on new brands. Make no mistake it is still India's no.1 brand for time tested, affordable, reliable vehicles with the nation's largest sales service network.

But for sales to grow and especially attract younger customers, maruti needs to offer them more. Whether it's design, safety, features etc buyers demand a lot more than simply maruti's traditional values/ethos....and I believe the company is headed in that direction with upcoming launches.

I always thought what TML needed was a new brand to replace the 'Tata' badge and that's were the problem lie. That was wrong as recent performance has proven. What changed Tata Motor's fortunes were the introduction of a more aspirational line up and letting go of its legacy models and ethos ie. 'more car per car'. Instead focussing more on design, safety, technology etc...

Simply face-lifting current models and using a new badge to differentiate them will not work for maruti I feel. I am sure the company realises this as well and the upcoming launches will hopefully prove the same.

[Turbanator]

That new brand maybe only for EV business. They can create a totally different division, to handle this. New factory/ Production lines, separate dealers for EV, separate workshops and charging infrastructure etc. Makes more sense to have a completely different team if they have to grow in this.

In today's situation, even if they don't invest a pie and simply go to the market, they can get tons of monies.