Maruti brings Baleno back as a hatchback

Maruti Suzuki brought back its Baleno badge in a new hatchback avatar to take on arch rival Hyundai's i20, the segment leader of premium small cars, amid the buoyant festive season, when car sales peak in the Indian market.

The new Baleno would be priced Rs 4.99 lakh for the entry level up to Rs 8.11 lakh for the top end. Its available in both diesel and petrol variants with the engines burrowed from the highly successful Swift hatchback but delivers higher mileage due to lighter weight. The 1.2 litre VVT petrol would deliver 21.4 km per litre of fuel while the 1.3 DDiS diesel would run 27.39 kmpl. The petrol will also be available in a CVT automatic transmission.

Maruti Suzuki had earlier launched Baleno as a sedan that was available with a single 1.6 litre petrol engine. Pitted against Honda City, the Baleno sedan had failed to captivate the Indian customers and was ultimately sold under heavy discount.

After almost a decade, the Baleno hatchback is coming with a total different strategy. It would be sold through the newly inaugurated Nexa premium sales outlet. Also it has twin engine options that would primarily target customers upgrading or moving to a pricier car.

Maruti Suzuki MD & CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said, "With the festive period around the corner, this is the perfect time to unveil this world car. Baleno would be exported to more than 100 countries from India and will make its debut in Europe 2016. This made in India model would be the first car to be sold in Japan too."

Meanwhile, Hyundai has upgraded its i20 hatchback with a new music system that now comes with an integrated navigation system. Similar changes are expected in the Honda Jazz that would also compete with the new Baleno.

The premium segment has been one of the strongest segments where around 40,000 cars are sold every month that also has Volkswagen Polo, Nissan Micra and Fiat Punto as other notable models.

Maruti claimed it has received a good number of bookings for the Baleno so far and with the deliveries starting on Monday, sales are expected to increase in the festive season when demand for cars peak amid heavy discounts and new launches.

The car would be loaded with Apple Car Play that would allow a host of multimedia functions via the voice command. It would help users to get direction, make calls, send and receive messages.