1 Maruti Baleno Being Sold Every 3 Minutes

It has been reported that Maruti Baleno, the highest-selling B2-segment hatchback in India, has achieved the 700,000 sales milestone in the domestic market. The Hyundai Elite i20 and Honda Jazz-rival was launched in October 2015 and received a nip and tuck treatment in late-January last year. As of 31 January 2020, the carmaker has dispatched 720,733 units of its most premium small car to its Nexa range of dealerships. Some simple calculations show that, in essence, the company has managed to sell a unit of Baleno every three minutes!

The Maruti Baleno is currently offered with two BS-VI compliant engines -1.2L VVT petrol and 1.2L Dualjet Dual VVT petrol with Smart Hybrid mild-hybrid system; and two BS-IV engines - 1.3L DDiS 190 diesel and 1.0L BoosterJet DITC petrol.

Reportedly, the carmaker has delivered 616,867 units of the petrol variant and 103,866 units of the diesel model. Going by these statistics, it looks like the company’s recent decision to axe the production of the oil-burner-equipped model won’t hurt the popularity of the hatchback. It’s also worth mentioning here that the Baleno became the fastest car in its category to achieve 600,000 unit sales. The long-standing Elite i20-rival is being sold through the 363 Nexa outlets spread across 200 cities.

In fact, the demand for this hatchback has been so strong that it has remained at the top of the sales charts of its segment almost throughout its 51 months-long stint. In the last fiscal, it sold 152,422 units, down by 14 per cent on YoY basis. However, this de-growth can be attributed to the prolonged sales slowdown that affected the entire car market.

The Maruti Baleno has managed to stay at the leading position in the premium hatchback segment ever since its introduction in 2015.

So far, the Maruti Baleno has been on sale in four engine options – 1.2-litre VVT petrol that is available with 5-speed MT/CVT, 1.2-litre Dualjet Dual VVT petrol with SHVS and 5-speed MT, 1.3-litre DDiS 190 diesel with 5-speed MT and 1.0-litre Boosterjet turbo-petrol with 5-speed MT. Out of these, the latter two won’t be upgraded to achieve compliance with BSVI emission norms, which means that soon, the B2-segment hatchback will be left with just its 1.2-litre petrol engine options.