NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

DA-1
NAME- KARAN KULHARIA
REGISTRATION NUMBER- 19BME0813

Question- Product life cycle of any automotive product

(any model/variant).

The automotive product chosen for the Product life

cycle is MARUTI-800.

About the product-

The Maruti 800 is a small city car that was manufactured by
Maruti Suzuki in India. The first generation (SS80) was based
on the 1979 Suzuki Alto and had 800 cc F&B engine. It was
widely regarded as the most influential automobile in India,
about 2.87 million cars were produced during its course
which 2.66 million were sold in India itself. With over 30
years of production, it remains the second-longest
production car in India.
INTRODUCTION STAGE- (1983-1986)
The company that launched the MARUTI 800 was MARUTI
UDYOG LIMITED. The MARUTI 800 was first launched in the
Indian Market in 1983.First car was presented to Lord
Venkateshwara of Tirumala Venkateshwara temple. First car
was sold to Harpal Singh for Rs.48,000/- as a lucky owner and
received keys from Prime Minister of India INDIRA GANDHI.

GROWTH STAGE- (1987-1996)

During this time the demand of the car soared , so the company
decided to provide new features like AC, Music System. The
export of the car began in 1987 and from then the sales soared
from about 63,763 units to about 1,89,061 units in 1996. To
increase the popularity of the car the company started to
provide better Customer Care and the company increased its
service station every 50 Kms on a highway.

MATURITY STAGE- (1997-2002)

In the year 1997, MARUTI launched a new car that was shaped
like jellybean. But it was not successful. Later the company
launched a new and modified model of MARUTI 800 named
MARUTI 800 EX with new engine, shock absorbers, but this
model lost its sale gradually because of Entry of Companies like
FORD, TATA. In 2002, MARUTI launched ‘ALTO’, with bigger
stylish version of the Maruti 800. The company adopted many
strategies during this stage like competitively pricing the car at
Rs- 1,87,000 as the lowest offer on the road. It started Maruti
finance and Maruti insurance to develop new revenue streams.
DECLINING STAGE- (2002-2014)
Due to introduction of new cheaper cars like Hyundai i10,
Chevrolet spark sales of MARUTI 800 decreased. The sales went
down from 1,51,976 units in the year 2000 to about 69,553 in
2007. In March 2009 TATA introduced a new car named NANO
which was cheaper than MARUTI 800 which further decreased
the sales of MARUTI 800. The production of the car was
stopped in 2014 and the MARUTI 800 was replaced by ALTO.