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2010 will be the toughest year for Maruti Suzuki but no Nano plan.

“2010 will be the toughest year for Maruti Suzuki,”  said Shinzo  Nakanishi  MD of Maruti Suzuki , when asked whether the company feels confident of retaining its market share of almost 60%. Companies ranging from Toyota to Volkswagen to Ford and Nissan are gearing up to launch small cars in India. Meanwhile, homegrown auto major Tata Motors has also usurped the tag of entry-level carmaker from Maruti Suzuki by launching the Nano, priced significantly below the company’s once bread-and-butter M800 model.

Nakanishi says Maruti Suzuki is gearing up for the challenge, and will focus on its strengths — making small cars at competitive cost and pushing them through its wide retail networks. Even as it launches more and more new cars to keep customers within its fold by offering a wide basket of products, the company is also looking to sharpen its edge by making the Alto — its most successful model — even more price efficient.

“There is a room…for further reduction (on Alto price). We have to look at that and are asking our vendors (component suppliers) to reduce costs further, considering that the model’s monthly volumes have gone up from just 3,000 units a month to over 20,000 units now. If they (vendors) succeed, we would pass on the benefit to customers,” he says.

So, there’s no chance that Maruti Suzuki will try to develop a cheaper car to take on Nano. But expect lots of action in other segments. Apart from new models like Ritz and A-Star, Maruti has also refurbished old warhorse Zen and has launched it in an all-new avatar. It has tried to take care of some of its laggards, as is evident from its effort to phase out the multi-utility Versa and relaunch it as Eeco, a lower cost version that it hopes will attract upgraders from its Omni van.

While it appears to be fully loaded for the challenge in the small car segment and also has a good hold in the entry-level sedan segment with Dzire, the company has worries in the sedan segment, dominated by Honda City in petrol category.

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