As the market shifts toward SUVs and sales of the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz decline, the car will be phased out by April 2025. Autocar India has discovered that sales are anticipated to stop by April 2025, and manufacture will stop by March 2025. Several industry sources verified the development, despite Maruti Suzuki’s formal denial of the claim, calling it “incorrect.”
The change in consumer preferences may be the main cause of the sales drop. In 2015, sedans made up 20% of the Indian automobile market; by 2024, that percentage had fallen to less than 10%, while SUVs now made up more than 50% of all passenger vehicle sales. Maruti’s stake has decreased from 40 percent in 2017–18 to 11 percent.
As a result, the market for midsize sedans, which was formerly dominated by companies like Honda, Hyundai, and Maruti, has drastically decreased. There were just five models left by December 2024, compared to nine in 2017. The segment is now led by the Volkswagen Virtus, Skoda Slavia, and Hyundai Verna. Compared to the 35–40% it held in 2017–18, Maruti Suzuki’s share has fallen to only 11%.
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Sales of midsize sedans continuously decreased to 97,466 in FY24 after reaching a record of 1,73,374 units in FY18. In October, November, and December of 2024, Ciaz sales were 659, 597, and 464 units, respectively. For the first nine months of FY25, sales were 5,861 units, a 34 percent YoY loss that exceeded the segment’s overall shrinkage. The Ciaz was introduced in 2014 as a replacement for the SX4. It enjoyed early success, often leading its segment against the Honda City and Hyundai Verna.
Maruti Suzuki’s sudden decision to leave the diesel market in 2020, only a year after introducing the 1.5 DDiS diesel engine that was developed in-house for the Ciaz, was one of the pivotal moments for the company. The engine was removed because it could not fulfil BS6 emissions regulations, leaving the car with only a 1.5-liter gasoline engine at a time when diesel accounted for 30% of sales.
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The fact that the Ciaz barely changed after its most recent significant upgrade in 2018 made matters worse. As competitors unveiled digital instrument displays, sunroofs, ADAS, and turbo-petrol engines, the Ciaz stuck with a normally aspirated engine that lacked the sophistication and power of its rivals.
Maruti Suzuki has made a bold decision to concentrate on SUVs in line with market trends, with the Jimny, Grand Vitara, and Fronx serving as growth engines. Maruti Suzuki will essentially leave the midsize sedan market with the Ciaz’s demise, following an industry-wide trend in which SUVs are driving sedans to the periphery.
