Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki have managed to disturb the veterans that were spinning big volumes for quite some time in the SUV space.
The SUV body style is getting quite popular in India since a long time but the popularity didn’t actually result in drastic increase in SUV sales. Why? Because there weren’t many SUVs offered at the lower end of the market but a sea of full sized premium SUVs. Now things have changed and the SUV segment is showing tremendous growth, which is expected to increase two-fold in the near future.
Let’s address the elephant in the room. Hyundai has just taken the SUV game forward with a bang, thanks to the Creta’s overwhelming success. The first compact SUV from the Korean automaker’s stable has contributed 7437 units in August, which makes it the top selling SUV in the country. The demand for the Creta is at its peak and Hyundai has decided to ramp up its production to address the increasing waiting period.
The country’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki also launched their promising crossover S-Cross just after the Creta’s launch. The premium crossover managed the top 3 spot with 4602 units sold in August, which is a big achievement for a Maruti car crossing the Rs. 10 lakh price bracket. So the two new entrants created quite a stir in the compact SUV segment. This is evident looking at the Ford EcoSport’s decline of sales by 36 percent and Renault Duster’s 64 percent decline compared to the previous year.
With the new generation Scorpio and updated XUV500, Mahindra has shown some charged up sales of 52 percent and 14 percent respectively, compared to the previous year. The new list of features and fresher styling has got the sales rolling for the big brute SUVs. As expected, the Bolero continues to sell in large numbers thanks to its popularity in rural areas but compared to the previous year, it has declined by 30 percent.
With the launch of the Mahindra TUV300 this month, we expect SUV sales to see a different dimension next month, as the new offering from the Indian carmaker is getting quite popular. No units of the Ford Endeavour were sold in August, which means that the company is no longer selling the old Endeavour and are preparing to bring in the new generation model. The next generation Endeavour is all set to hit Indian shores within the next four months.
