Indians opting for costly automatic variant of Maruti Celerio
Most customers of the newly launched Maruti Celerio hatchback are opting for the expensive automatic variant, surprising the company and signalling a significant demand for automatic cars — know for effortless drive and faster acceleration.
According to some Maruti Suzuki insiders, more than 52% of around 20,000 Celerio cars delivered and booked so far in the country have been the automatic variant. This is almost double the share the company had initially expected. "We will have to fine tune our supply chain and production targets to meet this spiralling demand for automatic," Mayank Pareek, chief operating office for marketing and sales at Maruti Suzuki, told ET.
The automatic Celerio comes at a starting price of Rs 4.14 lakh after the excise reduction on February 17, while the manual-geared version is priced Rs 3.76 lakh onwards. Launched at the 2014 Delhi Auto Expo, Maruti Celerio is the first car to be offered with automatic manual transmission or, AMT, in the country. This improved technology has allowed Maruti to cut down the price difference with manual cars by more than half toRs 37,843, and retain fuel efficiency at par with the manual version at 23 kmpl.
