Maruti Suzuki Baleno beat the Swift hatchback and Dzire subcompact sedan to become India's second bestselling car in March 2017. Maruti Suzuki sold 16,426 units of the premium hatchback, right behind the Maruti Suzuki Alto that took the number one spot on the list with 18,868 units. Maruti Baleno was launched here in October 2015 and quickly went on to register its name among the company's most popular cars in the country. Retailed only via the Nexa dealerships, the hatchback's sales crossed the 1 lakh sales mark in India within an year of its arrival here.
What's really interesting is that the Maruti Baleno managed to sell better than some of the company's most consistent offerings. The Maruti Baleno's sales grew on a year-on-year rate of a whopping 163.40 per cent, as compared to the 6236 units in March 2016. In fact, the hatchback managed to do better than a host of Maruti's consistent offerings including the Swift DZire, Swift, Wagon R and the likes.
The Maruti Baleno outsold the automaker's most consistent selling models
The Baleno's demand has been surging right from the time it was launched with overwhelming orders and waiting periods extending to five to six months on certain variants. Maruti's Manesar facility could only support limited production despite running on full capacity. However, the Gujarat plant in Sanand finally kick started operations in February this year and with production shifted, the company is finally able to meet the pending orders.
At present, Maruti Suzuki has over 80,000 orders for the Baleno, but the waiting period is expected to reduce considerably now. The recently launched Baleno RS, which we drove recently, has also rejuvenated interest in the hatchback that now gets a more powerful 1.0 litre BoosterJet engine with 99 bhp of power, targeted for the enthusiast.
The Hyundai Grand i10 outsold the Wagon R in March 2017
For March 2017, Maruti Suzuki's bestsellers beyond the Alto and Baleno, were the Swift DZire in third place with 15,894 units sold and the Swift in fourth with 15,513 units sold. Sales of the popular selling WagonR saw a partial drop last month with 12,105 units sold. Meanwhile, the Hyundai Grand i10 that managed to surpass the boxy hatchback on the top 10 list taking the fifth spot with 12,545 units sold.
Moving down, the Baleno rivaling Hyundai i20 sold 10,644 units followed by the Renault Kwid that pushed 10,296 units. The Vitara Brezza that has also seen excellent numbers in the past year and registered 10,057 units in March 2017, while sales of the Maruti Suzuki Celerio have been increasingly steadily as the model sold 8823 units last month.
