The race for top honours in the utility vehicle segment between Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) intensified in FY2017-18 despite the market leader ending ahead of the homegrown rival.
While MSI ended the year with 2,53,759 units of UVs, including Vitara Brezza, Ertiga and S-Cross, M&M retailed a total of 2,33,915 units during the just ended financial year.
However, in the fourth quarter of 2017-18, M&M pipped MSI to capture the number one slot with 67,805 units sales against 63,781 units of the latter, according to figures shared by the companies.
M&M, which sells popular models such as Bolero, Scorpio, XUV500 and TUV300, had been the undisputed UV maker in the Indian market till 2016-17 when it sold a total of 2,22,541 units as against 1,95,741 units by MSI.
However, it was dethroned from the top spot by MSI when it launched Vitara Brezza in 2016.
In 2017-18, MSI dominated the UV sales for the first three quarters. The company MSI sold 57,125 units of utility vehicles while M&M sold 53,082 in the first quarter.
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In the second quarter also MSI stayed ahead with 67,123 units as compared to M&M's 61,516 units.
The trend continued in third quarter, as MSI retailed 65,730 units while M&M could manage only 51,512 units.
An MSI official said the growth of the company's UV segment has been driven by Vitara Brezza, S-Cross and Ertiga with demand still continuing to be strong as some of the model having weeks of waiting period.
There is still a waiting of around 42,000 units for the company's various UV models, the official added.
However, on the back of strong performance of models like Bolero and Scorpio, M&M ran ahead of MSI in the fourth quarter.
Commenting on development, M&M President Automotive Sector Rajan Vadhera said, "On the product front, power brands such as Bolero Power+ and the new Scorpio saw demand growing in FY18. While product and marketing interventions have brought increased traction for the TUV300 and the refreshed KUV100 NXT."