Demand, not supply, is the problem keeping Maruti Suzuki India Limited busy this festive season. At the sidelines of the new-generation Baleno’s launch, the company’s Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, Partho Banerjee, spoke about Baleno demand, Brezza booking numbers and production splits, and why the industry’s SUV obsession doesn’t tell the whole story.New Brezza: 60,000 bookings, two-month waitBanerjee revealed the scale of demand for the new Brezza. “We have got close to 60,000 bookings now,” he said, adding that this had come in “a span of 6 weeks.” However, production has not been able to keep pace with demand. “We are not able to deliver 60,000 in 1 month,” he explained, noting that the company has “already got a waiting of close to 2 months now.” He added that all three powertrain options are performing well.Hatchbacks still matter: “There is a place for all models”Turning to the wider industry narrative that SUVs are the only segment that matters, Banerjee firmly disagreed. “Everyone said that only SUVs will rock but we always said that there is a place for all models,” he said. He backed this with numbers: “Despite SUVs accounting for 57% of the overall sales, hatches and other form factors are contributing 43%… close to 2.5 to 2.7 million” units, going by an estimated industry size of 6 to 6.3 million vehicles by FY30-31.On the Baleno’s continued strength, he said, “In the last 5 months we have done 80,000 plus sales. That’s over 16,000 per month.” He noted the model’s dominance in its segment: “Today in the industry every third vehicle which we are selling in the premium hatch segment happens to be a Baleno.”Balancing Brezza and Victoris productionWith demand outstripping supply for both the Brezza and the Victoris, Banerjee described how the company juggles capacity between the two. “Victoris is doing very well and we are again short of capacity there. So, now we have to calibrate between Brezza and Victoris,” he said, citing last month’s Brezza volumes of 18,000 units.Bookings across the Baleno, Brezza, and Victoris are outpacing what Maruti can currently build, and with festive-season buying now in full swing, the next few months will test how quickly that gap can close. As of now, the challenge doesn’t seem to be convincing customers to choose Maruti, it’s building enough cars before they choose someone else.
