[The Rationalist]

On a lighter note Maruti can turn Alto, Dzire and Baleno into standalone brands and claim position no 3,4 and 5 in manufacturer standings!!!

[Nissan1180]

Thanks for sharing the numbers. It is good that the Tiago finally overtook the Kwid- people finally seem to be realizing how VFM it is. Hopefully it will draw prospective customers from the Maruti stable in the future. I wonder how the market would look at this time next year. Hopefully we will see at least one electric variant in each segment. I am curious about Isuzu. How many units of the V-Cross does it manage to sell?

[Dr.Naren]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

On a lighter note Maruti can turn Alto, Dzire and Baleno into standalone brands and claim position no 3,4 and 5 in manufacturer standings!!!

Maruti has sold 28553 cars through brand Nexa. That's number 3 position . Hyundai is at 40008 units. Imagine with more number of Nexa cars and showrooms, cars sold through Nexa can even beat Hyundai in future.

[Thermodynamics]

Except that kink in the middle due to GST, the vehicle sales have grown steadily along the year, particularly the B2, C2 and D1 segments. Year end is close and the dispatch numbers have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

My takes are

- Congrats to Alto for gaining back its share from Kwid. Renault needs to be watchful, Alto and Eon might take a new avatar in 2018.

- Congrats to Jeep compass for steady ticking healthy numbers, it is interesting to see Jeep encroaching the buyers space of XUV and Hexa although they serve different purpose.

- Sad that Honda is slowly loosing steam. Dead on arrival products have become a norm. One exception is WRV, but that too is showing signs of slow down. Please uplift the 7 year old Brio. Despite B2 segment has grown substantially in 2017, Jazz numbers are not growing on par with the market.

- Congrats to Tata Motors on edging up to the third position. Hope the ramped up Nexon production and Tigor EV deal with Government would help sustain there for some time.

[King_pin09]

As usual, great analysis there, Aditya.
Thanks for sharing.

My observations;

1. Ciaz continues its dominance over city and moreso even over the new Verna. Vento, Rapid and Linea are left far behind.

2. Celebration time at Jeep quarters. Jeep has been maintaining steady increase month over month sales since launch. Sustainability of the initial momentum is entirely subject to Jeep's ability to retain these customers as satisfied.

3. Ecosport facelift seems to have attracted decent following. The next few months would decide as where it would ultimately settle down.

4. Kwids dwindling numbers might become a reason for big worry at Renault. Kwid maintaining steady pace is important considering that the Captur is just launched.

[pannags]

Originally Posted by Aditya

Thanks again for compiling and sharing this.

At this rate there will soon come a time when cars in the C2 segment will top the chart! In comparison with how things looked a decade back, it would be an understatement to say we spoilt for choice.

The message for car makers is loud and clear: If you have the stuff, there will always be takers!

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

On a lighter note Maruti can turn Alto, Dzire and Baleno into standalone brands and claim position no 3,4 and 5 in manufacturer standings!!!

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

Maruti has sold 28553 cars through brand Nexa. That's number 3 position . Hyundai is at 40008 units. Imagine with more number of Nexa cars and showrooms, cars sold through Nexa can even beat Hyundai in future.

It ain't for nothing that they say, "India comes home in a Maruti Suzuki"

[jpcoolguy]

Thanks Aditya for the November monthly sales figures.

Few observations from my side -

1. The highlight of Nov '17 sales is the dwindling numbers of M&M, Honda and Renault and surprising high number for Tata and relatively good number for Maruti.

2. First, the good - in fact, this is Maruti Suzuki best ever month in terms of Market Share - 53.06%. This was mainly fuelled by 2017's 2nd best month for Alto, Baleno, Brezza and S-Cross. Only cause of their concern would be downward trend for Ertiga and less than average Ignis numbers.

3. Tata is the other manufacturer who did good - they have grabbed the 3rd place from M&M once again during the month of Nov (last time was same month last year, during Demonetization). This could be a blip in M&M's numbers, but what I feel is that Tata has the capability to retain the 3rd position permanently with Nexon and Tiago's growing numbers and Tigor has also sold in decent numbers this month.

4. In the other end of spectrum, M&M has one of their worst ever monthly sales in a very long time (except for that Demonetization month - Nov '16). Last time, they had a monthly sales of less than 15K was in Aug '15 (when they had very bad 3 consecutive months - Jun '15 to Aug '15). Their dependency on Bolero is clear, but what should worry them the most is the consistently low numbers of their cash cows - Scorpio (3660 this month and 3422 last month, whereas it used to sell on an average of 5K) and XUV 500 - it's 2nd least month ever (barring Nov '16) and these are high margin vehicles as well.

5. Honda is the other manufacturer who suffered this month, almost all their vehicle sales are down - Brio slumping to its lowest ever month, Jazz and Amaze struggling to post 2K units, City relegated to 3rd in its segment, WR-V settling around 3,500 units (from the earlier highs of 4,500 - 5,000 units) and BR-V going down below 1K levels. Honda should be a worried OEM, they even lost 5th position to Toyota this month.

6. Renault is also seems to be suffering the same fate as Honda - Kwid down to it's launch levels (approx. 5,500 - 6,000 units), Duster slumping to its 2nd lowest month ever and Captur struggling to take-off (seems cannibalized Duster's numbers).

7. The interesting C2 sedan segment, seems to be dwindling with all the vehicles posting below average numbers - Ciaz, City, Verna, Rapid, Vento.

8. Facelifted Ecosport seems to be started off well, by posting its 2nd best ever monthly sales and facelifted S-Cross also seems to doing well posting above average numbers than the pre-facelift version.

9. Nexon also doing well and along with Ecosport, these two may have impact of WR-V sales numbers.

[discoverwild]

Maruti can never be touched even with a large pole. Frankly, no contest.

Tata has worked hard and it shows in the way the new products are being noticed and picked up in the market, even by people who didn't like Tata for its previous disaster. Only the Bolt and Zest seem to be working the taxi circuit, barely numbers to be proud of. A revelation, considering the fact that Tata has been accused of making taxis that lacked appeal for the private buyer. The Tiago twins are at the 10k mark, a superb achievement to go by. Arrival of the Sport versions of the twins is expected shortly and that should address the only grouse people have. Look forward to the twins hitting the 15k mark. The Nexon has breached the goal of 3500 cars per month, set by Tata themselves. They should look at sustaining such volumes with a keen eye on quality. Time for Tata to consolidate their energy into the current crop of cars, and stop production of the non-movers.

Mahindra will be looking forward to 2018 and their all-new MPV to drive sales. Similar to Tata, they need to stop flogging the old horses and focus energy on quality and build on that.

Nissan seems to be on the way out after Chevrolet. Not even 1000 cars sold from the entire portfolio?! The writing is on the wall.

[Mr.Beat]

Some fascinating numbers these, some very surprising.

1. VW losing it to Skoda big time! I wonder what would have happened if we would have an Ameo equivalent for Skoda. Despite the poor service track record and seemingly similar dealerships, the Tiguan, Vento and now Passat lag behind the Skoda counterparts.

2. Fantastic for Jeep to maintain steady sales numbers which means it is not only the initial enthusiasm that has kept the sales chart alive. Although the real test will be when it will be a year old with more competition.

3. Maruti is really the king of Indian automobile sector. Look at Baleno numbers, even with the Nexa only sales it crosses 17k every month.

4. Honda got a small boost with the launch of diesel engines, but the pricing of it's products is taking the game away from them. City is the most expensive of the C2 sedans and it shows in the numbers.

5. It will be interesting to see how the plans for Kia plans out in this competitive space.

[AdiSolEn]

Fantastic analysis as always Aditya!
Tata Motors bags 3rd position! Amazing run from Tiago and Tigor. I still feel that They have even more potential. Tata should up the game with better engines for the Tigor!And the Nexon is showing very high promise indeed!
Mahindra is basically suffering from a combination of factors:
1. No new launches (as in fresh products)
2. XUV 500 and scorpio are just too old now to generate a frenzy.
3. Poor record of their recent vehicles when it comes to reliability.
Unless they get in some fresh products, it will be a tough time for them to keep the momentum going.

Jeep pulls in steady numbers as ever. I think it will just stabilise around 2000-2500 units/month. Even then it will be a winner in FCA books!

Nissan needs to rethink their strategy and portfolio. They seem to be going the Mitsubishi way, with no interest whatsoever in the Indian market. The new version of Micra is just so amazing. It is a pity that we are deprived of such good vehicles because the companies cannot read the Indian market right!

Honda continues to lose out. It is simply not the premium brand it once was in India. They need to rethink their approach sooner than later!

[Udit]

Tata is taking steps in the absolutely right direction. Tata should use their full capacity to produce Tiago and Nexon. I think Tiago can touch 10k mark if it is available without a waiting period. In the other thread, it was reported that Tiago and Tigor are coming with 1.2 turbo petrol, if that happens it will further push the sales of these cars. Nexon seems promising too. Hexa, although one of the best products from Tata seems being hit by Jeep Compass.
Renault Kwid is overpriced and people have realized it lately. The buy-able variant of 800 cc Kwid costs you near 4.25 lakh OTR and that falls in the territory of Tiago xe/xm, which is superior to Kwid in every possible way.

[sri_tesla]

While its worrying to see Maruti's monopoly or duopoly along with Hyundai in Indian market, I still believe the others should blame themselves. Almost all companies were very successful with some of their models but they all ignored to update them regularly in meaningful ways.

Ford:
Ford was very successful with figo but the new figo is much worse than the original model. Ecosport had a good run and still doing well but they seem to be happy with 5K per month. The new update is mediocre at best.

Renault:
Duster was a blockbuster for Renault but all the minor revisions it got are pathetic and forgettable. Now it lost the market that it created in the first place.
Kwid was also a revolution but I am afraid it will go the same way as duster.

Nissan:
Micra and Sunny did reasonably well but their current iterations are almost same as they were years back.

Volkswagen/Skoda:
Polo, Rapid and Ventos did very well despite their bad reputation about after sales support. They add few features every now and then but nothing significant.

Honda:
Quality of Honda cars went downhill starting from Amaze. All their cars are much costlier than the competition. It was OK earlier as they used to better quality. But now the price is high but quality is down.

Toyota:
They are OK with selling just 7 models for 3 million fast growing market while they are selling 13 different models for small market like Malaysia. In India they sell more than double that of Malaysia but they don't want to release any new models and keep milking Innova and Fortuner. In Indonesia they have 25+ different models

Most of the companies are not following up with good upgrades for their successful models and not bringing their globally successful models. I wonder what is the point of having huge factories here if they don't even put a real effort in selling decent number of models in a large market like India.

[feluda86]

This is my take on the sales numbers for November:

1. City, Ciaz and Verna are separated by only around 700 cars. All numbers seem ~1000 lower than the segment average for 2017. It seems the total sales of this segment is largely untouched (or may be 1000-1500 higher), just the number is now being split into 3 cars. It is still early days for Verna. Hyundai is still clearing back log from initial booking frenzy.

2. Its early days for Nexon and it is riding on hype at this moment. At the end of the day it is a jacked up Tata Bolt/Indica with untested engines. Once the initial period is done, I see Nexon settling around 1500-2000 cars per month.

3. The rear design of Tigor I think is the reason for failure. Though the segment of compact sedan itself is a failing segment (taking out Dzire of course which is an anomaly). I know of people buying Dzire because "it is a sedan" made by Maruti and everyone he knows has one. Maruti is still running on the myth of low running costs. Such is the effect of perception in India.

4. WR-V and Jazz seem to have settled at a combined number of around 6k (60% from WR-v and 40% from Jazz). This is a number Honda would be happy with I feel. 12-13k per month is what they seem to be settling at.

5. What is with the Etios twins this month? Good cars no doubt, but never sold for their spartan interiors.

6. Dzire seems to be settling down near about the old Dzire numbers which is expected but not so soon.

7. Honda still blames the government for its relatively poor show. In a recent press release, the company has highlighted GST as the reason for low sales this month. It is high time they either adjust their pricing to be competitive or improve the quality of their products to 2012 levels at least.

[r0nit7]

1. A very solid upward curve for Compass & the top spot on the T-bhps COTY 2017 marks a very good year for Fiat.
2. Tata at No.3, along with the fact that Hexa & Nexon are competing each other for the no.2 spot on the COTY and point no.1 means that 2017 has been the year of the underdogs
3. Negative MoM% for all Hyundais, isnt that a first!
4. S-Cross, the best made Maruti, is the least sold Maruti (after of course the Gypsy)
5. Mahindra's stable is stale at the moment.
6. Renault has failed to build on the success of the Duster & the Kwid.

[vb-saan]

VW really need a standout product, especially in terms of pricing (quality is already there). Right now they are not there in the mass market space, and their products in the higher segments are not able to make the presence felt. They couldn't manage anything special with the Tiguan, and the Passat should have got in here earlier with some imaginative pricing. The latter especially is a wonderful option in its segment. To add to the wounds, the lesser Skoda is doing pretty good with Octavia, Superb and the Kodiaq.