Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country’s biggest carmaker, is planning to refresh its premium hatchback Ignis after production of the existing model was discontinued earlier this year.

“From time to time, we keep on refreshing our products. The production of the existing model has stopped but the Ignis brand stays. We will be coming in a different avatar,” said Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales at Maruti Suzuki.

Maruti Suzuki, which has 17 products in its portfolio across segments, plans to bolster its SUV segment.

Maruti Suzuki started the financial year 2026-27 with record wholesales of 2.39 lakh units, the highest for a month in the company’s history. The carmaker recorded highest-ever SUV sales of 55,000 units, a growth of 142%

The company continued its strong momentum in exports with 40,054 vehicles shipped in April 2026, registering a growth of 43.5% year over year despite the West Asia war.

The company clocked total domestic sales of record 1.9 lakh units with 34% year-on-year growth.

Wholesales of Maruti Suzuki’s mini cars, Alto and SPresso, grew 254% year-over-year to 16,066 units. The broader small car segment, which includes Alto, SPresso, Celerio, and WagonR, grew 74%. Sales of entry-level sedan Dzire grew 139%.

“In India, 27 crore people own a two-wheeler. They all aspire to upgrade to a four-wheeler. Everyone is not going to leapfrog to an SUV. There has to be a stepping stone,” said Banerjee. “We are seeing huge growth in the mini segment.”

Over the last four-five years, Maruti Suzuki modified its production lines to meet the higher SUV demand. The automaker is now trying to calibrate production based on customer demand across different segments.

“From April, our production team has been able to partly unlock the capacity from small cars, and we have been able to supply that,” said Banerjee.

While small cars posted robust sales, the share of SUVs continued to increase in Maruti Suzuki’s portfolio. The share of SUVs in Maruti Suzuki’s portfolio stood at over 30% in April.

Published on: May 1, 2026 7:47 PM IST