B-segment car, A-star, today in the hope that it will revitalise plunging sales figures that fell by 8.3 per cent in October 2008.

Speaking at the launch, Maruti Udyog chairman R C Bhargava said, “There is a great deal of unpredictability about how world economic scenario will play out. Most experts say we have not yet got to the bottom of the economic cycle.”

Maruti’s sales in the first seven months of 2008-09 were 4 per cent higher than a year earlier, but commodity prices had hit profitability. The global credit crunch which has contributed to the slowing of auto sales has left many in the automobile industry who had planned to launch new cars and variant in 2008-09 on edge about the profitability of their new ventures. Many companies have had to scale back their production levels, including market leaders Maruti Udyog which had a routine shutdown of production in its Manesar and Gurgaon plants for four days to make adjustments in supplies. “The next five months, again very difficult to predict, but we do not expect sales and production this year to go below last year’s figure,” said Bhargava.

But while most companies remain worried about adverse economic conditions, Bhargava expects to see the benefits of the recent fall in commodity prices by February 2009 and anticipates that new models Swift and Dzire and A-Star would help the company beat last year’s production and sales volumes. “All the cars which we have launched recently have been very successful. The Swift and Dzire still have waiting lists despite the slowdown, despite the interest rates,” Bhargava said.

Priced between Rs 3.46 lakh and Rs 4.11 lakh, A-star’s new light weight, 998cc K10B petrol engine, promises mileage of 19.59 kilometers per litre and the car meets with European ELV norms, which means that 85 per cent of the car is recyclable.

Hoping to benefit from the export market like its nearest market rival Hyundai which has registered impressive sales even in these troubled times because of their exports, Maruti plans to manufacture 200 variants of the car and export it to around 150 countries. Exports to Europe will commence by early 2009 and A-star will contribute half of Maruti Suzuki’s overall export target of 200,000 units by 2010-11.