Indian Car Sales Figures and Analysis

[Steeroid]

The latest sales figures are now available, courtesy Murad Ali Baig Associates.

You can download them here:

Cybersteering

Quick look at the figures show the following facts:

1. Alto sales are now almost double that of 800, and 800 sales figures are about 1/2 of what they sold in the same period last year.

2. Alto rules the A category, followed by the Santro which is trailing by 30%.

3. Indica rules the B segment, while the Swift is...well, swiftly catching up.

4. Indigo tops the C segment, followed by the Accent. Ikon sales are down by more than 50% (these are figures upto Nov, before the Fiesta was launched).

5. Honda continues to lord it over the C+ City with sales figures just marginally below that of C segment runner up Accent. Signs that the border between the two segments is now fuzzy...l

6. Skoda outsells everyone else in the D- category.

7. Accord is way ahead of anyone else in the D segment.

8. I am one of the very few Safari owners in India, and the numbers arent growing by any stretch of imagination. The Innova rules that price band followed by the Scorpio.

9. Bolero outsells the Innova !

10. TBHP favourite Baleno is still plodding on with about 600 sales every month, but the Fiesta might just take a big bite out of that.

11. Honda have sold more CRVs and Ford have sold more Endeavours than Fiat has sold Palios and Petras.

12. Hyundai have some serious thinking to do with Elantra, Tucson and Sonata sales trailing competition.

[Steeroid]

Another interesting fact that is not reflected on the domestic sales table is that Hyundai's exports sales numbers are now 60% of their domestic sales. Last year it was 30-odd percent. This is one manufacturer that is leveraging its facilities in India to an export hub.

AND China is now the world third largest automaker, overtaking Russia (???) with 5.6 million (!) units expected to roll out this year.

[goldie_malhotra]

An observation:

This chart seems to define segments on the basis of the overall length of the car - and not the price or the engine.
This also falls in-line with 'class'-based perceptions of the Indian market - 'bigger' car principle - "bada hai to behtar hai" .

[Abhay]

Very interesting figures.....like your case Steeroid I am prolly one of the few petrol Indica owners from that B segment (would like to get the P/D split from their figure) :-)

[Surya]

I find it really hard to answer the question, though Indigo has some known build quality problems, how is it topping the chart for years in row??

When we say indigo I assume that most indigos on road are Diesel rather than Petrol. You guys agree with this?

Surya

[cnu]

Originally Posted by goldie_malhotra

This chart seems to define segments on the basis of the overall length of the car - and not the price or the engine.

Just wondering, what is the correct way of defining the segments ? Should it be based on the power and features or should it be based on the length ?

[GTO]

Nice analysis!

Honda rules the roost - and its products are the number sellers in every segment.

I still cant figure out why Innova sales have been so disappointing.

GTO

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by GTO

Nice analysis!

Honda rules the roost - and its products are the number sellers in every segment.

I still cant figure out why Innova sales have been so disappointing.

GTO

Could it be due to those pesky problems of excess smoke, rumored fuel-pump defects etc? After all this type news travel fast...

[Steeroid]

Sales figures till October are available on Cybersteering:

Murad Ali Baig's Auto News Bulletin

[tifosikrishna]

Methinks that this is a very useful thread and needs to be updated on a regular basis.

It will be helpful for us to check what the reality is......

Mods, Can you make this one sticky???

Steeroid, thanks for the update.

[adarsh76]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Sales figures till October are available on Cybersteering:

Murad Ali Baig's Auto News Bulletin

Sales figures of Verna is 2856 for October and the total sales is 4899 units. So the September sales is 2043 units. So hyundai is right in saying that they sold 2043 units in 5 days in September if these figures are indeed true. Remember Verna launch was on Sep 25 I guess.

Anyway, nice article steeroid.

[Steeroid]

QUICK ANALYSIS:

1. M800 is now a marginal product, doing just slightly better than the Swift. Terminal velocity has been achieved.

2. The space vacated by the Zen (34,000+ units last year vs 6k odd this year) does not seem to have been picked up by ANY of the others...VERY surprising.

3. Getz and Swift are doing < 1/2 the volumes they did last Financial year, which was not a full financial year for either of these vehicles. Large hatchbacks losing their charm?

4. Very slight increase (if it can be called that) in Palio sales after the Tata alliance, but the numbers are still way, way below that of any other player. 1000 numbers do not a manufacturer make.

5. Perhaps the MOST INTERESTING change is that the lower C-Segment seems to be petering out

- Esteem, Accent and Indigo doing smaller percentages of their previous year sales.

- BUT this seems to have been made up in the C+ Segment where the City and the Fiesta have done more volumes than either the Accent or the Esteem.

- Verna sales figures for the month are higher than the Fiesta, while the Fiesta has just about managed to cover the numbers it did in its first 2 months over the next 7. The City continues unruffled.

- Indigo is not doing the numbers it was for the first 3 years - needs replacement REAL fast or Tata lose out while the market marches on.

6. They actually sold 6,800-odd Ambys!!!

7. Despite not being around for the full period, the Civic has overtaken the Octavia(All Variants) + Laura sales in the brief period that its been around.

8. Corolla numbers are drying up. Fast.

9. The Sonata sells less than the C Class, Camry, Superb, CRV, Endeavour, and even the Pajero. Now thats a serious drubbing if ever there was one - FAILURE!

10. UV Market is surprisingly low-profile - Innova doing less than the Qualis, Sumo sales drying up, Scorpio and Bolero just about holding on to their numbers. Only teh Tavera seems to have done marginally better, so overall the UV market seems to be down...okay the Safari is selling twice as much in October than it did before the price cut.

[goldie_malhotra]

Great analysis, Steer.

QUICK ANALYSIS:
2. The space vacated by the Zen (34,000+ units last year vs 6k odd this year) does not seem to have been picked up by ANY of the others...VERY surprising.

I believe both the Santro and Wagon-R have benefited from this. See their market shares increase over the previous year.

3. Getz and Swift are doing < 1/2 the volumes they did last Financial year, which was not a full financial year for either of these vehicles. Large hatchbacks losing their charm?

I believe most of the sales last year was due to initial excitement over swift launch (when there were around 10-20k booking before actual launch). It seems to be stabilizing this year to a respectable figure.

4. Very slight increase (if it can be called that) in Palio sales after the Tata alliance, but the numbers are still way, way below that of any other player. 1000 numbers do not a manufacturer make.

Perhaps this is also due to the fears that the current Palio 1.2/1.6 would be replaced soon.

5. Perhaps the MOST INTERESTING change is that the lower C-Segment seems to be petering out

- Esteem, Accent and Indigo doing smaller percentages of their previous year sales.

- BUT this seems to have been made up in the C+ Segment where the City and the Fiesta have done more volumes than either the Accent or the Esteem.

- Verna sales figures for the month are higher than the Fiesta, while the Fiesta has just about managed to cover the numbers it did in its first 2 months over the next 7. The City continues unruffled.

- Indigo is not doing the numbers it was for the first 3 years - needs replacement REAL fast or Tata lose out while the market marches on.

Simply because the lower C segment hasnt seen any new launches this year. While the upper-C segment has been totally revamped with new/upgraded models all over the place. And perhaps people have realised that the upper C segment does offer more value/features for the higher price.

6. They actually sold 6,800-odd Ambys!!!

We still have a steady supply of politicos

9. The Sonata sells less than the C Class, Camry, Superb, CRV, Endeavour, and even the Pajero. Now thats a serious drubbing if ever there was one - FAILURE!

That more than explains the 12L price ....

[suman]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

- while the Fiesta has just about managed to cover the numbers it did in its first 2 months over the next 7. The City continues unruffled.

Good review Steeroid.....Quite an eye-opener...if you look at the cars in the Upper A3 that have been around for a year, Fiesta is second to NHC in sales for the period April to October.........not bad at all in a country full of Ford haters....nah, let me tone that down - Ford critics. I suppose this is a regular report, would be interesting to see the figures till the end of the fiscal though I cannot see the positions changing. Also, Fiesta sales started in mid Nov last year so the Apr05-Mar06 data is for almost 5 months.......not 2, so no major drop there, in fact whether we acknowledge or not, the numbers have been going up, not plateauing out or going down.

Adarsh, where do you think Murad would have got his data from?

[theMAG]

This means one thing only - the Indian car market, has still not reached anywhere near the critical mass required for a country to be motorized, and is in danger of sliding back.

Good performance by a limited few, overall negative performance on the whole. And I'd thought cars like the Swift were occupying a large chunk of Maruti's efforts.