Automobile major Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said the company has no plans to enter the Nano car segment or become a competitor to the existing player.
"Maruti has always been in small car segment and we have always concentrated on that category of up to 1200 cc cars. But Nano is something which is a totally different segment and we are not venturing or competing in that segment," Maruti Suzuki India chairman and MD R C Bhargava told reporters on the sidelines of the 48th SIAM Annual convention in New Delhi.
On being asked about the decline in the sale of small cars and four-wheelers, Bhargava said that such kind of temporary downslide has been faced by the industry earlier.
"It won't take the industry long to recover and the market to stabilise. Certain external factors like rise in crude oil prices, the sub-prime crisis and inflationary pressure has hurt the auto industry just like any other industry and if the oil price stabilises the entire affect will mitigate," Bhargava said.
He added that the upcoming festive season would lead to increase in sale of small cars.
"The festive season has always been a good one for the industry as sales tend to go up and we expect the same to happen this year as well," he said.
He refused to accept that sales of Maruti Suzuki cars in India have declined drastically.
"Maruti 800 and Alto are from the same segment and taken together the sales of the two cars have not declined significantly," he said.
Regarding the Singur controversy, Bhargava said one such case would not make much of a difference "it is very necessary for an important state like West Bengal to have industries. It is a pity that they did not go for the Singur project and we hope that the issue will be sorted out."
