Jimny vs Thar: Maruti Suzuki shares launch price details. Can new offering give its stock a lift?

Maruti Suzuki is in news as the auto major revealed the price details of its new offering Jimny. The SUV has been priced in the Rs 1,274,000-Rs 1,505,000 range, ex-showroom Delhi price. Jimny has been offered in two trims – Zeta and Alpha, and is launched under the premium Nexa retail brand.

With this, Maruti Suzuki hopes to strengthen its product portfolio in the SUV space and would compete with Mahindra Thar.

Analysts tracking the sector said the Jimny’s pricing was a bit higher than what they had anticipated but noted that launch success rate at 70 per cent for Maruti in the past decade is much higher than the competition’s 14 per cent and may aid market share recoupment, on new SUV model launches in FY23-24. They anticipate sales of 3,000-5,000 units per month going ahead.

Nomura India said the pricing for the 5-door Jimny SUV came in a little higher than its expectation of Rs 10-11 lakh. Given that it has strong off-roading capabilities and is the only vehicle with five doors in this segment, Nomura believes it can command some premium from the niche segment of the buyers it will appeal to.

"We estimate it should be able to sell 3,000-4,000 units per month in India. However, the scope for volume upside at this price point is limited. At the same time, it should have high margins. It may face more competition next year, with the launch of the 5-door Thar in Q4FY24. We see limited demand impact on Thar as most of its demand is for the 2x2 RWD (rear-wheel drive) variant which is priced lower than the Jimny," Nomura said.

Watch: Maruti Suzuki Jimny Price Revealed for Manual and Automatic variants, Check out features of this new off-roading SUV

Elara Securities said the base Zeta MT variant is at an 8 per cent discount to the base variant of M&M’s Thar Petrol 4WD variant (AX opt variant). The top-end, Alpha – Dual Tone AT is priced at Rs 1,505,000, at 7 per cent discount to peers’ top-end variant (Thar LX Petrol AT 4WD AT), it said.

As per Maruti, India will serve as the mother plant for the Jimny (five-door) and will be the first market for its launch. Jimny is believed to have receive booking for 30,000 units split evenly between manual and automatic variants.

Elara Securitiues expect demand to accelerate going forward, as pricing has been announced and vehicles may be available for test rides. "We project an incremental domestic monthly volume addition of 4,000-5,000 units for Jimny in FY24E," it said.

"Higher-priced new model launches will continue to boost ASP in FY24-25E, thus propping EBIT/vehicle. Maintain Buy with an unchanged target of Rs 11,775 as we roll forward, on 26 times (unchanged) Jun-25E EPS," Elara said.

Nomura India, however, finds the stock worth Rs 9,659, suggesting no upside.

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