The Nissan Teana turned out to be the least sold vehicle in 2014 with just 15 units moved out of the showroom, while Renault and Skoda were the most disappointing with three products each in the list.
2014 was an interesting year for the automotive industry that managed to come out of the sluggish market sentiment and re-stabilize in terms of growth. We also saw that good vehicles nevertheless performed extremely well in the market even though growth was limited. However, not every vehicle was a successful chartbuster. While some lured buyers to the dealerships by the dozen, there were some cars that customers chose to stay away from. Taking a stock for the year gone by, we put together a list of the ‘Top 20 worst selling cars in 2014’ in the country.
The cars were categorized under 2 parameters –
* The cars were sold throughout the year i.e January-December, 2014.
* Luxury manufacturers were not included in the list i.e. Mercedes/BMW/Audi/Volvo etc. as their contribution is significantly lower in comparison to mainstream manufacturers.
Top 20 Worst Selling Cars of 2014 –
1) Nissan Teana – 15 units
2) Toyota Land Cruiser – 42 units
3) Toyota Prado – 51 units
4) Chevrolet Captiva – 63 units
5) Hyundai Sonata – 106 units
6) Skoda Yeti – 143 units
7) Renault Koleos – 166 units
8) Ford Endeavour – 249 units
9) Renault Fluence – 335 units
10) Nissan Evalia – 503 units
11) Toyota Camry – 724 units
12) Honda CR-V – 822 units
13) SsangYong Rexton – 1200 units
14) Skoda Superb – 1336 units
15) Tata Aria – 1346 units
16) Chevrolet Tavera – 1529 units
17) Chevrolet Spark – 1636 units
18) Hyundai Santa Fe – 1769 units
19) Mahindra Verito Vibe – 1784 units
20) Skoda Octavia – 1848 units
Observations –
While Ford had just the Endeavour listed down, other manufacturers had over two vehicles from their stable that have not been doing well in the market. Chevrolet had the Spark, Tavera and Captiva. Nissan had the Teana and Evalia. Toyota had the Land Cruiser and Prado. Skoda had the Octavia, Yeti and Superb. Lastly, Renault made an appearance with the Scala, Fluence and Koleos, while Mahindra’s Verito Vibe and SsangYong Rexton were the disappointments for the Indian automaker.
The list surprisingly includes some extremely capable and driver friendly vehicles that have been given a miss by customers for a variety of reasons including high asking price, higher cost of maintenance and the not so impressive sales and service experience with certain manufacturers. Nissan has been one of the most affected automakers in 2014 with only 15 units of the Teana flagship sedan moving out in the past year. The Teana retails against the likes of the Toyota Camry and Skoda Superb, both of which also turned out to be slow selling vehicles in the country with just 724 and 1336 units sold respectively. Nissan has now discontinued the Teana.
The list also saw as many as 9 SUVs and crossovers including the Toyota LC and Prado, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Santa Fe, Ford Endeavour, Skoda Yeti, Renault Koleos and the likes being in the top 20 least selling vehicles. While the compact SUV segment is booming impressively, the premium SUV space has been rather stagnant in terms of sales numbers with the Toyota Fortuner being the only consistently selling vehicle in the segment.
The not so surprising names on the list were the Mahindra Verito Vibe, Chevrolet Spark and Tavera and Nissan Evalia that have been recording low sales in the past years as well. Mahindra should seriously consider exhausting the Verito and Vibe models, while the Spark and Tavera have just lost out steam, much like Chevrolet itself. The case is no different for the Skoda Octavia and Yeti that couldn’t make good sales, despite being extremely capable products. The Yeti was facelifted last year, but that also couldn’t help the SUV make a substantial difference on the sales chart.
Hyundai and Tata Motors seemed to be the least affected here with the former’s flagship offerings the Sonata and Santa Fe being the slow sellers. In contrast, Hyundai’s mass market vehicles over compensate in terms of sales and the premium vehicles are more like brand builders. Nonetheless, the next generation Sonata is due for launch this year and might just give the upcoming Skoda Superb a hard time. Tata Motors on the other hand are still struggling to sell the very ambitious Aria. The MUV received a host of updates last year including added power and features, but nothing has helped the automaker push the vehicle out of showrooms.
Meanwhile, there is not a single Maruti Suzuki, Fiat or Volkswagen car in the list and that is for several reasons. Maruti’s vast dealership network means that even slow selling cars are not as low selling as the ones mentioned here. Fiat has only two products on offer (the company reports Punto Evo and Avventura sales combined) while Volkswagen stopped selling dud sellers like the Passat and Touareg last year. Mitsubishi too did not feature on this list because it only sells one vehicle, the Pajero Sport in the domestic market.
