Honda was in the news last month when the City registered a staggering sales of 9518 units in March. The City regained its position as the market king of its segment and rightly so. The new 2014 City is a great package and buyers love the vehicle for what it is. The Amaze, which was launched by Honda a year back is also selling in decent numbers. While the new City came and defeated its Korean rival Hyundai Verna, it seems the Amaze lost out to the smaller Korean sibling and the latest entrant to the compact sedan segment, the Hyundai Xcent.
Honda has registered a growth of 30% in April 2014. The automaker sold 11,442 vehicles compared to 8,488 units sold in April 2013. The City and Amaze are bringing in most of the numbers for the Japanese manufacturer while the Brio and CR-V are performing quite poorly. The Brio sold 578 units while its sedan counterpart Amaze sold 3355 units. The City sedan fetched 7044 numbers and finally the petrol SUV CR-V found 63 homes this month. Honda also exported 402 vehicles from India in April. While the City is really going strong against its rivals, it is clear that the Amaze is getting affected by new product launches.
The compact sedan and SUV segments are really hot. Winners cannot be predicted since the product which offers the best bang for the buck wins. In March 2014 the Honda Amaze sold 7374 units compared to the 3355 units of April. This means sales of the Amaze fell by more than 50% which is quite a significant number. Honda really needs to think of a strategy to gain back the lost numbers and a facelift of the Amaze is in the works. While the Amaze and Xcent will fight it out for good sales, it is still Maruti Suzuki who will be laughing its way to the bank thanks to the Swift DZire.
