[TusharK]

The brand that you often see at the top of sales charts is Maruti Suzuki. However, in May 2021, Hyundai and Kia together, sold more vehicles than the popular homegrown brand. This was possible mainly due to the fact that Maruti Suzuki had shut down its plant because of the Covid-19 crisis and diverted oxygen used in manufacturing processes to medical institutions.



Last month, the combined sales of Hyundai and Kia were 36,051 units compared to Maruti's 32,903 units. This also affected the market share of the brands. Hyundai and Kia's combined market share rose by 12% to 34.94% compared to April 2021, while Maruti's market share dropped by 16% to 31.89%.

Maruti Suzuki has dominated the Indian car market for years, while Hyundai has been playing catch-up. Now, the introduction of Kia certainly seems to be paying dividends. Despite being late to the party, Kia's product strategy has been spot on, which has enabled the brand to capture a good piece of the market in relatively less time.

Together, Hyundai and Kia offer a wide range of vehicles in India. Although some models share the same platform, both brands have managed to create their unique identity.

Source: Auto Punditz

Link to Team-BHP News

[Shreyans_Jain]

Had to happen. Their products are better built, have more features, have better engines with the all important diesel option and their range of transmission options is unmatched. Plus, the sunroof. As the market matures, more and more people start appreciating these things. What is all the more commendable is that Hyundai/Kia have achieved this with a much higher ticket price than Maruti. The chaps in Gurgaon must be so envious of the sheer profit margins the Koreans get to enjoy.

[jigar1791@gmail]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Had to happen. Their products are better built, have more features, have better engines with the all important diesel option and their range of transmission options is unmatched. Plus, the sunroof. As the market matures, more and more people start appreciating these things. What is all the more commendable is that Hyundai/Kia have achieved this with a much higher ticket price than Maruti. The chaps in Gurgaon must be so envious of the sheer profit margins the Koreans get to enjoy.

Beg to differ here! Hyundai-Kia can never match Maruti in terms of sales, atleast not in the foreseeable future.

This is just a one off exception that we have seen.
In March '21, when things were normal, MSIL's top-4 (Swift, WagonR, Alto and Baleno) with total cumulative sales ~ 77,000 units bring in numbers = Hyundai + Kia ~ 70,000 dispatches .

Almost entire nation was in lockdown for the whole of May '21, MSIL had shut it's manufacturing plant, sales were hardly happening. Though it affected Hyundai too, but volume wise - MSIL suffered more than Hyundai.

When situation eases up, unlocking starts and we'll see our country getting back to normal routine, MSIL will remain numero uno!

Wishing both - MSIL and Hyundai-Kia good luck. Healthy competition will result in the customer having the final word (or atleast, hope to have the final word )

Regards,
Jigar Shah

[SatJordan]

Seems like shutting down the manufacturing plant of Suzuki and diverting oxygen for the benefit of the public came like a blessing in disguise for the sister companies in India. This was probably anticipated and it is time for Suzuki to up its game for better competition. Though the household name is not going to go away easily, people have begun to perceive cars differently lately and we may have to see what the future holds for KIA in India, given its highly appreciative market capture in a very less time.

[theAutomaniac]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Had to happen. Their products are better built, have more features, have better engines with the all important diesel option and their range of transmission options is unmatched. Plus, the sunroof. As the market matures, more and more people start appreciating these things. What is all the more commendable is that Hyundai/Kia have achieved this with a much higher ticket price than Maruti. The chaps in Gurgaon must be so envious of the sheer profit margins the Koreans get to enjoy.

While everything you said is true, Hyundai-Kia can never compete with Maruti in terms of sales even if the sales are combined!

So how did they manage it this month? Simply because it was Maruti whose production was shut for more than half of the month. And even when they restarted production, Maruti never started production under full capacity unlike Hyundai who was running at maximum capacity they could for the whole month. In fact, Hyundai has even faced backlash from their own workers for not following COVID-19 guidelines!

Hence, I believe this is just an outcome of when one manufacturer tries to cooperate with the society and government while the other is simply unethical!

Their products are better built

While this is a little off-topic with regard to this thread, it's high time we realize that Hyundai cars are worse than Maruti as proven by Global NCAP crash tests! They just feel like they are built better and our unsuspecting fellows fall for the trap!

[PaddleShifter]

I believe that the sales got hit the most in smaller, rural cities compared to larger cities or urban areas. And that is why Maruti got hit the hardest out of all brands. If we see Nexon, it did a decent sales number of close to 7k. I see far too many Nexons in urban areas here in North India. Sales number anyway don’t matter much in the “pandemic disrupted sales month”.

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Had to happen. Their products are better built, have more features, have better engines with the all important diesel option and their range of transmission options is unmatched. Plus, the sunroof. As the market matures, more and more people start appreciating these things. What is all the more commendable is that Hyundai/Kia have achieved this with a much higher ticket price than Maruti. The chaps in Gurgaon must be so envious of the sheer profit margins the Koreans get to enjoy.

I do not agree with the “had to happen” part yet. It is “bound to happen” in future maybe.

The chaps in Gurgaon shut their plants in May, ahead of schedule to help with the oxygen crisis prevailing in the country during that time. The true capability of Hyundai+Kia will be evident the day they are able to sustain the top slot for atleast 3 months when no external factors are disrupting the manufacturing and sales (no semiconductor shortage or COVID-19 related restrictions for example).

https://www.ndtv.com/business/maruti...-needs-2423658


On an unrelated note, it must be stressful for the workers to manufacture cars during the second wave. A related thread is running on team-BHP regarding this.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...-lockdown.html (Is it ethical on the part of carmakers to work during the lockdown?)

[Sanidhya mukund]

But the question is, will things still be the same if we add Urban Cruiser and Glanza numbers?

If Hyundai-Kia are the same entity, then even Maruti+Nexa+Maruyota is also the same entity.

Jokes apart, this is still a cause for concern for Maruti. If they continue as such, the Market might just change it’s preferences. It is really high time to bring back the diesels, get the Jimny to India and focus on safety. Seeing how Tata has picked up in the recent past, it is quite evident that the average Indian consumer is now way more aware about such things. We also need better equipped Marutis- all models have the same infotainment system, even the flagship cars get only 2 airbags, all cars, from the Swift to the XL6 have the same steering wheel and the whole range is powered by the 3 K-series engines. (Excluding the Eeco’s 1.3 and Alto’s 0.8 engines)

[DonHyd]

These numbers don't mean anything. Kia is yet to surpass Tata sustainably. Maruti's usual numbers are way higher. At present, there is no contest.

However, Hyundai plus Kia or any of them singly can dethrone Maruti if they do 2 things.

1. Have as many number of showrooms and service centres as Maruti.

2. Have a competing car for every Maruti car, that means a competition to each of Alto, wagonr, celerio, spresso, ignis, ertiga and xl6 in addition to the present cars.

However, the investment required is prohibitive. They are happy playing the premium segments.

[RaghuVis]

I cant believe we have a thread to analyze dispatch(Not Sales) of May 2021 and do comparative analysis when 98% of India was in Lockdown! So silly!

[SoumenD]

Surprised to see a new thread for this one off event. Its simply because maruti had lesser production (lockdowns+plants utilized to make oxygen for covid patients) & eventually lesser factory dispatches. As lockdowns ease up things will get back to normal. Just top 3-4 marutis make up for what Hyundai-Kia ship put together.

[shortbread]

The launch of KIA has seen the Hyundai auto group see a 30% jump in it's India market share and that is exceptional, especially considering KIA is only getting started with two mainstream products!

Suzuki is doing right by increasingly relying on Toyota, because it does not have the technical or financial wherewithal to compete with the Korean juggernaut as customers continue to move upmarket! A BS6 diesel engine, EV, Hybrids, In car tech etc....etc....Suzuki has next to no competence. So Toyota is the way to go.

What India's largest car maker can do well is make small light petrol powered cars and that will continue to hold it in good stead for the near future, BUT the challenge is customers are becoming more demanding each passing year and MSIL need to do a lot more than new stickers and festival editions!

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by SoumenD

Surprised to see a new thread for this one off event. Its simply because maruti had lesser production (lockdowns+plants utilized to make oxygen for covid patients) & eventually lesser factory dispatches. As lockdowns ease up things will get back to normal. Just top 3-4 marutis make up for what Hyundai-Kia ship put together.

How True. It is one off scenario and more of an exception than the actual sales. Maruti probably has used the lockdown for maintenance and alternatively O2 production.

Once the lockdown is lifted and the full fledged production starts, the numbers will be back to normal. This comparison is more to garner attention than any reality associated to it.

[dark.knight]

Fact 1 : Factory dispatches, I can never say this enough times.

Fact 2 : Best seller doesn't mean the best, what ultimately matters is satisfaction for those buying them, Maruti, Hyundai, or VW.

Fact 3 : We're in a lockdown, there are no contests to be held in a global economic and health crises.

Fact 4 : Anytime someone compares Hyundai-Kia group to any other car, the bashers come out in full force to stomp them down.

This is a no-news, the haters and Jap fans can put their guns down, we already know 1000+ cars were Alcazar demo dispatches and maybe some stock as well, and all Urban Cruisers and Glanzas count for Maruti as well, not that it matters again, as I've said they are dispatches not sales and Maruti has almost 3 times more sales points to send inventory to, so under normal production they will beat all else.

[Axe77]

Similar to what some other members have said above, my personal view is that this one off incident does not really warrant a standalone thread.

Given the specific factual context to this incident, the information is inconsequential at best and misleading at worst (although of course full disclosures of lockdown and other factors are mentioned).

[dragracer567]

There are just too many caveats here:

1) Both May 2020 and May 2021 were affected by the pandemic, so a better comparison should be between April 2021 and May 2021.

2) Hyundai-Kia sells higher value products to what we could define as an 'upper middle class' who were relatively less affected by out of pocket expenses during the second wave (especially in the Western and Southern states where the infrastructure while strained didn't collapse). Maruti on the other hand sells cars mostly on the lower end of the middle class spectrum vis a vis Hyundai which were also hit much harder by the second wave.

3) Effectively May 2021 data is just an outlier. Its just shows that Hyundai + Kia contracted less the Maruti Suzuki because of reasons mentioned above (-45% vs -76% respectively) but we could expect Hyundai-Kia's production to grind to a halt this month with the production being ground to a halt at Hyundai's factories in Tamil Nadu.