The small cars saw a major decline in sales while the premium hatchback and sedans continue to post impressive numbers.
March 2015 was certainly a mix bag of hits and misses in terms of sales showing a major shift in customer preferences. Even though sales are said to be on the stabilizing front, the Indian auto market still has a long way to go in gaining consistent positive momentum. Performing poorly, the small car segment posted a major drop in sales while the premium hatchback and sedan space managed to boast of impressive numbers with the Honda City, Amaze and the Hyundai i20 emerging as real winners. Check out the top 10 selling cars in March 2015.
Observations –
1) Despite retaining the top four positions and the tenth spot on the list, Maruti Suzuki witnessed a drop in sales for most of its products. Compared to February this year, the Alto witnessed a 2.8 percent sales drop while the Swift saw a sharp decline of 14.4 percent. The Celerio faired on the tenth spot but saw a drop of 25 percent in sales. The three cars also posted lower sales compared to March 2014. Emerging as a saving grace, the Wagon R and DZire continued to be positive sellers for Maruti posting a 5 percent and 4 percent increase in sales, compared to the same period last year.
2) Honda made a significant jump on the list with the new City moving to the 6th spot from last month’s 10th place. While the City posted a year-on-year growth rate of 3 percent, the sedan faired extremely well on month-on-month sales with an almost 50 percent growth. The sedan also achieved the 1 lakh sales mark last month, being the fastest C-segment offering to claim the title in just 15 months. This also shows that the new Verna 4S has done little to move the City away from its track.
3) The Elite i20 has been doing great numbers for Hyundai India and has been consistently posting over 10,000 units every month making it difficult to keep up with the demand. The premium hatchback retained its fifth spot while posting a whopping 136 percent year-on-year growth. Hyundai’s Grand i10 was consistent on a month-on-month basis, but a year-on-year sales comparison saw a 17 percent drop in sales for the hatchback.
4) Coming to the top losers, the Bolt seems to have not lived up to the expectations of the masses as Tata Motors retailed a mere 1118 units last month, posting a month-on-month decline of 51 percent. The Zest however is slowly and steadily gaining traction averaging around 2500 units every month. The company sold 2653 units of the compact sedan in March, witnessing a jump of 25.1 percent.
5) The Maruti Ciaz is on a bumpy ride as far as sales are concerned and recorded a drop of 21 percent with 4251 units sold last month, compared to February this year. Other losers included the Datsun GO with just 469 units and the Tata Safari with just 426 units sold.
