Maruti has announced an increase in the prices of all three variants of the Swift, a mere 12 days after its launch.
All fresh bookings from Thursday, June 9, will be on the revised prices, which add Rs 8,000 to the LXi's original tag of Rs 387,000, and Rs 10,000 each to VXi's Rs 405,000 and ZXi's Rs 485,000 (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The market leader's move will provide some respite to competitor Hyundai Motors India, which had been under pressure to lower the prices of its Getz, which is in the same segment as the Swift but whose entry level model costs Rs 450,000, either directly or through discounts.
"The new price is only for fresh bookings. The current bookings for 18,000 cars would take care of around three months' sales (delivery), which effectively means the introductory price is applicable for three months from the date of launch," said a Maruti spokesperson.
"This price increase is marginal and was inevitable considering the features the higher versions of the Swift have been loaded with. The demand for this model will continue to remain steady at current levels, despite the price hike," said Anang Dev Jena, head of Synovate Motoresearch.
Despite the increase, the price of the entry level Swift remains below Rs 400,000. It will, thus, continue to attract the lower sales tax of 2 per cent in the national capital region. The rate rises to 4 per cent once the price breaches this barrier.
The high-powered Swift launch has been well received by consumers as well as motoring experts. MUL sources also said that the response so far had crossed even the company's expectations.
While the delivery of the vehicle was to start on June 6, MUL had advanced the schedule to commence delivery a week ahead of that.
The Swift which was first talked about three years back as Concept S, will be produced at MUL's facilities at Gurgoan with a local content of around 86 per cent and with a 1.3 litre engine, an improvised version of the engine fitted into the three box model Esteem.
A product that is claimed by MUL as technically advanced than its peers, has been developed as a "world car" by Suzuki.
The version that is produced and sold in India has been developed with 25 engineers from MUL working along with their counterparts in Japan. The Swift is produced in four countries across the world.
