Four out of top five selling cars in India from Maruti

Even as passenger cars sales hit a decade-low mark in the last financial year, the country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki managed to retain volumes with four of its best selling models inching their way up to claim spots among the top five passenger vehicles sold in the country.

Though sales of small car Alto declined by 13.5% to 266,785 units, the car continued to dominate the number one slot in passenger vehicle sales.

Interestingly, despite sales falling at the entry-level (cars with engine capacity of one litre priced up to Rs 3.5 lakh) by 13% last fiscal, demand notched up for mid-range premium models such as Swift and DZire.

While sales of Swift went up by over 20% to 184,897 units helping it to retain the second position, sedan DZire (with sales of 169,571 units) grew volumes by 54% and edged out the WagonR (135,694 units) to become the third best-selling car in the country.
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Highlighting the increasing preference of Indian customers for diesel-powered utility vehicles, Mahindra & Mahindra Bolero zoomed its way into the top five list with sales of 117,666 units. This is the first time in the last five years that an utility vehicle has featured in the top five list in a country which is known for its love for small cars. The sales numbers recorded By Hyundai i10 in FY13 further reinforces the increasing preference for premium mid-range cars in the Indian market. With sales sliding by 25% to 92,897 units during the fiscal, i10 slipped to the sixth position from the third slot it had held a year earlier.

Ertiga, which debuted in April last year gave strong competition to Toyota Innova. Maruti Suzuki sold 76,375 units as compared to 77,062 units of Toyota Innova. Ertiga displaced Mahindra Scorpio to claim for itself the third spot in the top selling utility vehicles in India.

Sales of UVs had grown by a whopping 52% last fiscal as compared to the tepid growth of 2.15% recorded in the PV market in the same period. Utility vehicles contribute as much as 21% to overall passenger vehicles sold in the country highlighting the need of all car makers to have a strong footprint in the category.

For the entire fiscal, Maruti Suzuki’s sales increased by around 5% to 1.05 million units. The company’s market share improved marginally to 39.12% as against 38.27% recorded on close of the previous fiscal.