India car sales analysis: July 2018

The monsoon season in India slows the automotive market every year and 2018 has been nothing different. But given the surge in the volumes in the first half of the year, the baseline of sales figures has certainly moved up a notch and the 3.5-million mark this year looks pretty much feasible. As the second half of the year embarks, car makers have geared themselves for the festive season which is known to make or break the fortunes of set targets.

As usual, when the market is slow, Maruti Suzuki takes the lead and with six of their cars at the top of the sales-leaderboard, the carmaker has attained a whopping 53 per cent market share in passenger vehicles in the month of July. Led by the Dzire, the Maruti contingent has Alto, Swift, Baleno, Wagon R and Brezza in the top-ten in the same order as mentioned. It is interesting to see that the Dzire, the Baleno and the Swift dominate the budget sales showing us that the Indian market is definitely growing in car-size.

Hyundai also has three 10,000 unit sales cars in the Elite i20, the Grand i10 and the Hyundai Creta and is the undisputed second. The third spot has seen a stiff fight between Tata, Mahindra and Honda. Here, the Japanese carmaker has pipped the other two for a podium spot with the Amaze leading the charge and the City and the WR-V supporting with steady performance. The new Jazz should bring in some numbers after the facelift in the coming months. Tata’s numbers seem to have steadied and it is the same case with Mahindra. While Mahindra has the Marazzo and the Tivoli-based compact SUV coming in the next three months, Tata’s new products are coming in 2019.

The Ford Freestyle’s numbers are equivalent to the Figo and with the new Figo coming in next month, Ford will be hoping to add to its tally. Also expected to come soon are the Nissan Kicks, Honda CR-V and new Ciaz.