It’s just been two months since export operations of the Maruti Baleno commenced and the premium hatchback has already become the company’s most exported model. In February, 3,400 units of the Baleno left the country thereby outdoing its stablemates, the Alto (1,645 units) and Swift (1,425 units).
In January, first lot of 1,760 units of the RHD variant of the hatchback went to Japan. The following month, the company added 6 new LHD markets from Europe – Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Slovenia and Poland. Considering that India is the sole manufacturing base for the Baleno, more and more markets would be added to the export list. The Baleno aims to become the most exported car from India in due course with over 100 destination markets.
For some markets, the export-spec variant is powered by a 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine. The export-spec Maruti Baleno is powered by the 1.2-litre Dualjet petrol engine (an advanced version of the K-Series motor) with SHVS and the new 1.0-litre BoosterJet turbocharged petrol motors. The 1.3-litre diesel motor is limited to the domestic market as of now.
The export-spec hatchback receives SHVS (Smart Hybrid Vehice by Suzuk) mild hybrid technology. The Maruti Baleno sits above the Swift to compete with the likes of VW Polo, Hyundai i20 (called as Elite i20 in India), Skoda Fabia, etc., in Europe. In India, the premium hatchback crossed 100,000 bookings.
