It's been just four months since the launch of the latest-generation Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and the company has already axed its base variants- LXI and LDI from the line-up. Maruti Suzuki Arena dealerships which retail the Ertiga have been asked not to accept bookings for the same pertaining to higher demand for the other variants. However, when asked about this development Maruti Suzuki India declined to comment on the particular matter and for now, includes all the variants in its pricing list.
According to our dealer sources in Delhi, Mumbai and some tier 2 cities, inventories of the Ertiga LXI and LDI variants are still in abundance with dealerships. Hence, Maruti may be liquidating the existing stock despite having stopped taking bookings. The termination of the base variants would also mean that the petrol Ertiga will now be offered with an optional Automatic transmission across the range since the base LXI variant was the only trim where it wasn't available. Since its launch, 30 per cent of the sales of the Ertiga attributed to the V variants while Z and Z+ variants together constitute almost half of the sales.
The decision may also have been taken to reduce the waiting period for the higher variants. Maruti is also gearing up to introduce the indigenously developed 1.5-litre diesel engine across its line-up which will replace the Fiat-sourced 1.3-litre multijet engine. The introduction of a bigger engine would have added to the cost and in-turn would have made the base variants pricier. Dealers have also shared that Maruti at a later date could launch a Tour variant of the Ertiga to cater the fleet operators as the current generation Ertiga is not available for commercial use. However, Maruti Suzuki has denied any such development for the time being.