[Anoopscv]

Thanks for the much awaited report. Good to see the numbers of Honda City. It was a good month for all SUV's except Innova. Why celerio's sale came down by a thousand numbers? and Estilo is stopped now?

[zenren]

Honda is literally on a roll!

Originally Posted by aniketi

Hyundai: Great going but are feeling heat now from Honda. All like Eon, Verna, i10, i20 started declining in sales. Santro doing better than i10 is surprise. Elantra doing good in D segment. Only i10 Grande saving them. Verna is showing its age now against City, lets see how it goes in coming months.

Hyundai are still doing the same numbers as last year. So it seems Grand i10 has only attracted potential i10 and i20 customers. Xcent could potentially bring some new customers for them from next month and actually increase their market share by eating away Dzire and Amaze customers.

Toyota: All down. Surprisingly. Innova also loosing. Looks like people realized that they are looting. If Maruti makes Ertiga little better in terms of space, Innova will loose more business. Since they have no real competition they enjoyed success for too long now.

Looks like their complacency has finally hit them hard. The news on Innova recall could further reduce the sales during April.

Maruti: Almost 45%. MUL must be little worried. All stars like Alto, Swift, Dzire, Wagon R, Ertiga, Omni giving them great sales. Celerio is new Star for them. Will do more when production scales up, can do 10-12 K easily. Ritz & SX4 are struggling, get Ciaz quickly Maruti. Overall good for them.

I think they are holding back Ciaz till Xcent is launched and stabilized. If Maruti launches Ciaz now, it would do the same thing to Maruti as Grand i10 did within Hyundai stable - eat from the market share of siblings like Dzire and Ertiga. If the Dzire numbers fall around the timeframe of the Xcent launch, that would be used forever by Hyundai in their marketing campaigns. I think Maruti might be better off holding back Ciaz for a quarter or so to ensure that Dzire is still the clear market leader even after Xcent launch.

[TaureanBull]

Finally the much awaited thread of month.

For Mahindra a good month. XUV has sales hovering at 3K+ regularly. Post Oct 13, the vehicle is a very good VFM.

March sales account for one of my XUV too!

[arjuunz]

The sales figure of Ford fiesta new seems to be very very poor, and they are still going to release a face lift version of a totally failed car! I wonder where there are going with that move.

Also, disappointed to see the skoda sales figure. The cars are very good, and I expected the new octavia would boost thier sales a lot, but only by a bit. If only thier after sales service improved!

The Honda city diesal has really given them a boost in sales!

[devansn]

Looks like Skoda is getting what they deserve for all the after sales horror stories that we hear of. With half a dozen beautiful products, they are not able to sell as much as Fiat manages with only two products.

Fiat is steadily improving, albeit slow. They have improved their after sales definitely. More products in the lineup should take them to the VW territory. They should be earning good profits from the MJD and AMT contracts with Tata and Maruti anyways. This should give them the liberty of playing slow and safe with their car business.

[samabhi]

From Mahindra, the sales of e2o are not disclosed?

[desdemona]

I believe the Competition Commision of India needs to launch an investigation into over-concentration in the Indian mass market for passenger cars, in almost all segments.

They should focus on market failures caused not so much by companies/dealers/branding as by ignorant and irrational consumer behaviour (information poverty and distortions for eg about safety and recalls, failure to gather and autonomously evaluate information about car companies and models i.e., the most herding effect of any car public in the world).

What remedial action to take, and what penalties to levy is a tricky question, but this is clearly NOT remotely a well-functioning 'free' market.

[ampere]

Honda City selling 9K+ only implies that Honda is controlling Brio production to make way for City and Amaze. Smart move. At least make way for what sells!
But still never seen a 9K+ on a C segment monthly sales ! Even Verna I think at its peak was about 4K+

[DWind]

A look at Top Gainers I see 4 out of 10 are SUV/MUV. Is it because of elections? If yes, did Innova missout bigtime?

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by ampere

But still never seen a 9K+ on a C segment monthly sales ! Even Verna I think at its peak was about 4K+

You bet. Thats just one sales bomb that went off(in a positive way) leading to tremendous sales. Guess the Verna will be taking the greatest hit of all. At last, the Verna got a fair competitor, a competitor which has the potential to pack it up and throw it off the market.

I somehow feel that Hyundai must stop positioning cars through a large price bracket. That will just lead to cannibalisation instead of attacking amother priduct. From the past few months, if we take the sum of hatchbacks sold by Hyundai, the change is very less. The i10 ate into santros sales, the i20 ate i10s sales, the Grande i10 ate i10s as well as i20s sales figures, and the Xcent is just going to make matters worse by maybe elimnating the i20, taking into account the huge fanatism shown by our people towards sedans. When they can get the Xcent, I dont know if anyone will be looking forward towards an i20.

I have no hopes on Maruti in the future. They seem to be riding fine now, but in a rather stubborn way. The cars need extra kit and a little improved quality. If they wait for sales to tske a hit before they pull up their socks, it would be too late IMO.

[skyrocket003]

Thank you so much for the numbers. This is a great report and a good read.

Going Good:

Maruti. Having a great time on the sales chart. But Celerio numbers are still not making their impact IMO.

Hyundai. Grand i10 is going strong but it appears its eating the sales of its siblings i10 and i20. With the launch of Xcent, they will surely up the ante. And i really love this company for the way it has understood the Indian market.

Mahindra. Well, their SUVs are selling good. In fact, its a surprise seeing Bolero selling so much. XUV500 and Scorpio are raking in good numbers too. Good going M&M.

Honda. The City is selling like hot cake now(even with the under-powered Diesel!) and Amaze is also doing great business.

Tata. Having a fair share of the market but they can certainly do a lot better. Waiting for Bolt & Zest to hit the market. And oh, their AMTs should do them some good if launched at proper price point.

Tough Run:

Toyota. Well their laid back attitude and complacency is starting to show up. Even Innova is suffering and we all know how the Etios line fared up.
Chevrolet. Nothing much to write home about. They are running out of ideas and they have themselves to blame. I rarely see a new Chevy on road these days. Looks like they are ready to pack up.

Renault & Nissan. Terrano and Duster are the only ones getting some sales for them. Lets see how it goes.

Skoda. The shoddy after sales service is pinching them big time. They should only blame themselves for this.

[VinodDevil81]

Originally Posted by rahul4321

Superb analysis yet again! Thanks! A strong month for Maruti and Mahindra! Honda expectedly has also seen a massive surge thanks to the new City being launched in both petrol and diesel avatars! I was just talking to my friends the other day about the taste of Indian consumers and how they've become so well-informed. An instance of that is in the sales of the i10 versus the i10 Grande. Hyundai 'down-badged' the i10 Grande; making people feel that it is nothing more than a i10 with frills. But the sales figures speak for themselves about how the well-educated and well-informed indian customer wants a car which is technologically advanced as compared to the earlier version despite the fact that the company badged it very close to the earlier version. 3000 units for the i10 versus 10,000 units for the i10 Grande!

On a seperate note- look at the marketing strategy of these two auto manufacturers! One car company launches a completely different car built on a different technological platform and badges it very close to the older car but it still manages to get people's attention and earns great sales (i10-i10 Grande). The other gives it some bells and whistles, a few styling touches here and there and decides to badge it in a way where the older name is completely removed (Wagon R - Stingray) but it still doesnt fool the people!!

Hopefully this example will also remind the other auto manufacturers from trying to dump previous generation models in Indian when they've outlived their lives elsewhere in the world!

Oh and - 38 Endeavours and 33 Camry's? Thats a pleasant surprise- i've not seen a new one in ages!

I don't think that the success of Grand i10 is just because of the fact that the Indian consumers have become suddenly well-informed. It is true that there is an increase in the level of awareness of the customers these days, but in this particular case I think it is more of just basic logic of the average customer that has played more than increased awareness.

Firstly in the Grand i10's case, Hyundai made sure that the good old kappa2 i10 was laid to rest along with the Grand i10's launch.So someone who wants a kappa2 engine has no other choice now other than grand i10. Even if he buys the regular i10, he will only get the iRDE engine.

Secondly, with the Grand i10 came the u2 Crdi engine. Now that also has contributed to the success of grand i10.

Both these are not applicable/missing in the WagonR/Stingray case.Unlike Hyundai,Maruti did'nt replace WagonR with the stingray but rather decided to add it as a bit more premium product than WagonR with literally nothing significantly newer to justify the need for a premium, or a need for this new model altogether.

Afterall, it is just 90% old WagonR itself, with the same engine, interiors and looks. So majority customers naturally continued to prefer the more established regular WagonR.

Also Stingray did'nt have a diesel version like grand i10, which would have definitely helped it to attain decent numbers.

btw, Maruti did'nt remove the older name completely from Stingray as you have mentioned. Just check the name plate on the hatch-door of a Stingray next time you manage to see one. It is written "WagonR Stingray". They have made it more like a sub-variant of WagonR , but even that did'nt help.

Coming back to the topic, I am surprised to see WagonR still selling a strong 14495 units in-spite of Celerio's strong sales.I always had the impression that the Celerio's high numbers were actually eating partly into wagonR sales but I think that is not the case really. These Celerio buyers are not entirely A-star customers too because Astar used to sell in 3 digit figures only. So actually whose share it is which celerio is eating up now? I think the AMT has created a whole new share of its own.

[mahesh_sn]

My 2 cents

1. Good to see Fiat doing consistent 4 digit sales
2. It seems Bolero is benefiting from election effect. One of the Konkan's powerful politician's supporters purchased a lot of 12 Boleros. This purchase ran into controversy and is being probed by police.
3. Honda City is enjoying initial hysteria associated with any blockbuster launch. IMO, sales will come down to more saner levels a few months down the line. Let's wait and watch.
4. What's up with Corolla with zero dispatch in March? Any facelift coming up?
5. Good start for Datsun for sure...

[ampere]

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

Coming back to the topic, I am surprised to see WagonR still selling a strong 14495 units in-spite of Celerio's strong sales.I always had the impression that the Celerio's high numbers were actually eating partly into wagonR sales but I think that is not the case really. These Celerio buyers are not entirely A-star customers too because Astar used to sell in 3 digit figures only. So actually whose share it is which celerio is eating up now? I think the AMT has created a whole new share of its own.

Celerio is not eating much into Wagon-R sales I think. That may be because, people who buy Wagon-R are looking for space and utility. And the guys who are looking are Celerio are mainly the AT market and a city commuters with no major space requirement. I think there in lies the divide.

[ravradha]

Santro beats i10, first time after launch of i10. This is a vindication of the average Indian perception. Why pay more for a car which gives less in almost everything but for the looks. Now anyways looks of i10, also elicits contempt. Great lesson in product positioning in India.