Indian car sales for January 2016: Winners and Losers

Order seems to have been restored – there were no surprises in January 2016. And it isn’t such a nice thing, the sales compared to the start of last year haven’t really improved – pecking order has, but essentially, mass market brands have sold only 800 more cars last month. Nevertheless, here are the highlights based on the sales report for January 2016.

Winners:

At the Auto Expo, Renault announced that the Kwid has managed over 1 lakh bookings – it is a lot, close to 25,000 units each month since launch. Only Maruti Suzuki has managed a similar feat before. Renault has an opportunity to get into the big league – timely launch of the Duster facelift and Kwid 1.0-litre will do wonders for the brand.

The Honda City wholesales have once again crossed the 8,000 mark, which is kind of a big deal, considering the average on-road price is upwards of Rs 10 lakh. Even the Jazz has done well, 4,709 units despite being expensive and having to face stiff competition from  the Hyundai Elite i20 and the Maruti Baleno.

Ford has brought back the Endeavour and the initial numbers are looking good. Four hundred and eighty units, when the price tag starts at Rs 23.65 lakh (ex-Delhi); only the Toyota Fortuner has done better in terms of pure numbers.

Losers:

The Toyota Innova sales have been dipping consistently for the last few months. Plus, now that they have showcased the new Innova Crysta at the Expo, chances are they will further dwindle by the time the new model is launched in May. Even the Fortuner isn’t doing as well – possibly the Ford Endeavour effect!

None of the carmakers have done badly last month. But brands like Fiat and Nissan need to make substantial changes in their strategy to bring up their sales. Overall, it wasn’t a great month for the industry either. While the economy seems to be doing pretty well, interest rates are slowly coming down and even the fuel prices are in check but the sales figures in comparison look dull.