Maruti Ertiga drives past 700,000 sales, CNG gives new market power

Yet another Maruti Suzuki car has crossed the 700,000-unit sales landmark. It’s the popular family car – the Maruti Ertiga MPV. Launched on April 16, 2012, the Ertiga was the passenger vehicle market leader’s first crack at the MPV segment and took nine-and-a-half years to achieve this number.

As per Autocar Professional’s statistics, from launch to end-October 2021, the Ertiga has sold a total of 699,215 units, just 785 short of the 700,000 mark which it would have crossed in the first few days of November. The MPV’s best annual sales came in FY2020 -- 90,543 units sold (see table below) but it looks like the Ertiga will better that in FY2022.  Having averaged monthly sales of 8,146 units in the April-October 2021 period, Maruti Suzuki is likely to see this model touch the 100,000-unit sales mark, with four months left for FY2022 to end.

CNG Ertiga takes 41% of sales in year to date
In terms of fuel, between April 2012 and October 2021, the Ertiga has sold a total of 344,174 diesel variants, 297,285 petrol and 57,756 units of the recently launched CNG variant. This means the diesel-engined Ertiga (discontinued from April 2020 when Maruti exited the diesel market) accounted for 49.22% of total sales. 

Although it is early days for the CNG-powered Ertiga, it looks like the eco-friendly variant is making its presence felt. Of the total 65,174 Ertigas sold in between April-October 2021, the CNG Ertiga accounted for 41% or 26,783 units, with the balance 38,391 units being petrol. The Ertiga, at present, is the sole MPV in India which comes equipped with factory fitted CNG technology.

Popular family car
Powered by the 105hp, 1,462cc 1.5-litre K-series petrol engine, Smart Hybrid and AT technology as well as the factory-fitted CNG model (launched in February 2020), the Ertiga has carved a niche for itself. The Ertiga VXi CNG BS VI model delivers fuel efficiency of 26.08 km/kg, which is value for money in a time of high fossil fuel prices. 

The new Ertiga, which was Autocar India’s Car of the Year 2019, benefits from clever packaging. Despite being a seven-seater, it is still compact in dimensions, and its light controls and good all-round visibility make it very user-friendly and easy to drive. The interiors are more spacious and feel plusher, and the well-cushioned seats take cabin comfort up a few notches. And the larger cabin and the backrest recline function helped make the third row far more usable than the earlier model.

On the safety front, the new Ertiga gets features such as dual airbags, hill hold (AT only), ISOFIX, electronic stability program (AT only) and ABS with EBD.

In a market teeming with compact SUVs, the Maruti Ertiga has over the years been a sustainable success. While not overly flamboyant with monthly numbers as compared to its siblings the Swift, Baleno or the Wagon R, this MPV nonetheless has been a sturdy market soldier for Maruti Suzuki, delivering the goods consistently. Sometimes, that’s just what matters in the long run. 

MY2022 Ertiga snapped testing
Maruti Suzuki is readying an updated Ertiga for launch in 2022 and Autocar India has revealed a test mule, which was photographed for the first time with barely any camouflage. Like the MY2022 Baleno, the updated Ertiga will receive a host of cosmetic changes. A closer look at the grille indicates resemblance to the MY2022 Maruti Baleno facelift, as both models seem to have a similar pattern for the grille. The rest of the MPV, as can clearly be seen in these images, remains largely unchanged. The headlamps, tail-lamps, front and rear bumpers and even the alloy wheels will be carried forward as it is.

The Ertiga facelift is expected to remain mechanically unchanged. That means it could carry forward the tried and tested 1.5-litre petrol engine with mild-hybrid tech from the current model. This engine produces 105hp and 138Nm of peak torque. Transmission choices will also likely remain unchanged from the current 5-speed manual and 4-speed torque converter automatic units.