The Renault Kwid and new Ford Figo make their entry on the sales list while top sellers continue to come from Maruti’s stable.
The hatchback space dominates the Indian auto sector and without a doubt every manufacturer is working hard to make its presence felt in the segment. Largely divided into the entry-level A, mid-size B and premium B+ segments, sales for the month of September 2015 cumulatively accounted to 1,13,723 units with the Maruti Suzuki Alto leading the pack in the A-segment selling 20,658 units. Compared to August 2015, sales for the hatch were down by 10 percent, whereas the Hyundai Eon and recently updated Tata Nano GenX grew marginally during the same period. The Datsun GO continued its dud selling streak for the previous month pushing out just 685 units.
Making its entry on the list was the highly awaited Renault Kwid which recorded 381 units last month (dispatches started in full flow only this month). Moving up, the B-segment continues to be Maruti’s home ground again as the Swift continues to be the best seller clocking 18,278 units with sales rising by 8 percent, followed by the Wagon R that sold 14,912 units and is also the fourth best selling model in the country. The Hyundai Grand i10 clocked 11,258 units last month growing by 9 percent at the 3rd spot while keeping it company is the Maruti Celerio at 4th with 8901 units sold with sales coming more from the petrol and AMT derivatives.
Contrary to expectations, the Indica continues to be the popular offering in Tata’s stable selling 3343 units while the newer Bolt managed just 830 units during the same period. The new generation Ford Figo has made a decent start retailing 1547 units and we expect sales to steadily increase over the next months. The duds in the B-segment continued to be the Nissan Micra, Chevrolet Sail U-VA and Beat, Renault Pulse and Mahindra Verito Vibe with triple digit figures.
The coolest group in the hatchback space, the premium B+ segment still remains a playground for the Hyundai Elite i20 with 11,744 units moving out this September. Sales for the new i20 have grown by 10 percent over August and the product seems to be in the safe spot, especially since the Honda Jazz is a distant second with 4762 units sold, retailing 11 percent lower than August. The Volkswagen Polo also saw sales plummet to 1896 units in September this year after pushing out 2803 units during the previous month.
The Fiat Punto Evo and Avventura continue to disappoint with just triple digit sales despite being driver focused products. That said, October will see the arrival of the Abarth Punto and Maruti Baleno in the premium hatchback segment with the latter expected to be a serious threat to segment leader i20 and could possibly take over the Jazz as well.
