September 2010 - Indian Car Sales Figures

[CARDEEP]

Originally Posted by Mik

Why are we surprised with the i20 doing such great numbers.
In the premium hatch category, it hardly has any worthy contenders.

2. Punto: Its a Fiat. People don't trust Fiat. They have very good reasons not to trust Fiat. I love the punto but will never buy one because Fiat might just stop it and then not provide me spares. Also, Indians like premium interiors and i20 trumps the punto hollow in that.

It is not a matter of trusting the Fiat IMO, but, the interiors are not that premium (as you have pointed in your post), making the car overpriced, especially a good handling similar car (Figo) is available for lesser money. I have pointed in my earlier post in this thread that Indica has suffered due to Figo launch. But, this may not be completely true as the Punto also seems to have suffered because of the same.

Originally Posted by adimicra

Mate, I agree on your observations about I20. I also think that people get the premium feel with the stylish looks and quality(flashy) interiors of the I20. I know people really do not care about handling but tell me one thing - how can it sell so much with a weak AC in hot country like India. I have first hand experience from the rear seat of the I20 and the AC was inadequate even when the temp outside was not the hottest. Continues to puzzle me month after month! Or Hyundai has changed something to rectify the issue?

I understand that others have already replied to your AC point, but, let me put across my opinion regarding the ride & handling point that you have raised.
I understand that the ride in i10 need not be as good as in case of Swift, but it is good enough for a family where the space & legroom come into play. This is why you see the Ritz also selling (good) beside the Swift despite being a similar car (essentially).

Originally Posted by designersf

Not good to see Tata struggling with the Indica and Indigo series. The Indica series (Indica+Indica Vista) manages just 6000 odd while Indigo series (Indigo+Indigo CS+Indigo Manza+Indigo Marina+Indigo XL) is 8000 odd. They need to seriously rethink their strategy with their newer cars, especially when it comes to naming them. Indica is hitting new lows thanks to the Vista, which has failed to take off. Any facelift for the Vista on the way?

Indica range is selling as many units as the Santro & Ritz & much more than Beat, Spark, A-* & Estilo. The Figo effect has definitely hurt their numbers but, still it manages healthy numbers. But, yes they need to rethink of ways to sell the car well including better QC & interior quality.

[S350L-E240]

I think to claim i20 does not have competition is quite false as many cars do exist and you missed out on the Jazz, the point is the i20 is a very good all rounder at a great price and if others can't do it, their bad luck but it does have competition some badly equipped and some badly priced.

Coming to luxury cars, Audi just released their sales figures and while I do not have the break up, the sales for the month are 302 cars now if only we could get BMW India's sales figures it will make an interesting study. It's funny how last year when BMW would always be the first one out releasing their sales figures because they were leading, this year they seem to be the last to release sales figures every month.

P.S: Just realized the S-Class number changed from 84 to 86, and a thought came to mind, did Mercedes-Benz ever manage to sell any S-Guard cars? They had a lot of marketing going on for it, also remember a full page ad in TOI few months back, just curious was it just done to be in the lime light or is it selling as it was intended to?

[fuel_addict]

Impressive numbers there especially the Altos, Wagon Rs, Fortuners and Ventos. 1300+ units in the first month for Vento should add more attitude and snob value to the VW dealers.

City sales at 6000+ is impressive. With other Honda car sales dropping, wonder if Honda should suffix all their cars as City and call them City Jazz, City Civic and so on .

Fortuner at 998 is super massive. CR-V at 88 is a shame. Only if Honda would admit that.

[rangarx]

All new Audi A8 seems to be rewriting the rules in this segment.

Intesresting times ahead.

[Mik]

Originally Posted by S350L-E240

I think to claim i20 does not have competition is quite false as many cars do exist and you missed out on the Jazz, the point is the i20 is a very good all rounder at a great price and if others can't do it, their bad luck but it does have competition some badly equipped and some badly priced.

Missed out on the Jazz. Jazz couldhave been the car taking on the I20 but the price !!

Every segment needs atleast two good allrounder contenders(read: VFM + Looks + Badge+ resale) Wherever thats not happening, there seems to be a monopoly of sorts. Cases in point are the Alto, City and the i20. I might want to include the Fortuner but no idea about other SUVs.

Please pardon me for not knowing my As from the Bs, but here is my noob analysis.

Alto segment: No other competition. Nano has a long way to go.

The WagonR/Santro segment: Lots of cars with stiff competition. i10 gains from being in the shopping list of both the wagonR and Swift customers. The same might just happen with the Figo. Somehow, Chevrolet seems to have lost the plot here. Otherwise most cars are doing decent numbers.

The Swift segment: Only the Figo comes close and its doing well. However, if maruti is able to ramp up its production, we might just see a massacre.

The premium hatch: Already posted.

The entry Sedans: D'Zire waiting list says it all. People here might not be able to digest its looks but i see colleagues in office actually appreciating the amount of chrome it has Otherwise, it is an excellent car and a segment behemoth.

The Sedans: City rules again. Vento has just started. Linea is already in the doldrums(Reasons discussed to death - Though i absolutely love its looks)

Won't comment on others.

[ownerofazkaban]

Kudos to Wagon-R, The numbers reflect in the cars reliability it is known for. I know one person living in Taluk place who has brought his 4th Wagon-R, every time the car is changed its Wagon-R again.

The numbers speak of trust in the car and am 100% sure its because of greater number of repeat buyers for the product.


Am a tad disappointed for Figo, since the numbers are running flat for past couple of months and its not been a year yet.

Another point that comes out is, the Market for small car is highly untapped, and there is so much space for everybody. Toyota is not in yet. I think it will continue to grow explosively for at least another 3-4 yrs.

It would be good to know if any housing money is being redirected into Car, people put off house purchase decision, influence here ? Any takers ?


Its the right time for entrepreneur to jump into the non-authorised service/repair business. The critical mass is building up and there is pie for every one.

[sanagg1]

Originally Posted by Mik

Alto segment: No other competition. Nano has a long way to go.

Game has just begun.

Yep ! Nano has really a long way to go in future.
I am not sure about future life of Alto.

This is being discussed in another thread by GTO regarding on the shelf availability of Nano

Cheers

[noopster]

Had some free time, so whipped up some Excel magic

Breakup by segment:


Hatchback and Sedan breakup by sub-segment:


My definition of the sub-segment (so sue me! )


Finally, a summary view of all car sales by segment:


Feel free to use and abuse at will!
-Noops

[EARTHed]

Thanks for the superb breakup Noops-IT Manager.

Among hatchbacks, Premium hatchback - 46%. WOW!

[diffsoft]

I thought Captiva was 167 and not 1577 as mentioned above.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by noopster

Had some free time, so whipped up some Excel magic
Feel free to use and abuse at will!
-Noops

Thanks for the effort, but some numbers seem to be incorrect. For eg: Cruze:167 and Captiva: 1577.

[adimicra]

Good work @noopster.
But for the sake of correctness, the hatchback classification should be as follows -

Hatchbacks - entry
estilo
wagonr
astar
santro
spark


Hatchbacks - mid
i10
ritz
swift
beat
micra
uva
indica vista
figo

Hatchbacks - premium
i20
polo
punto
fabia
jazz

I am not going to do the caclulations based on the above classification

[noopster]

Thanks for pointing out the errors, folks. Am sure there are more .

Anyway, this is the corrected SUV tally:


And how could I forget?- the MUV tally:


@adimicra- I included Spark as a "small car"


Also, a couple of important segments that got missed out...


Mods- can you merge this into the original post as an edit? Thanks!

[rrsteer]

Originally Posted by GTO

*Update* Added Mercedes to the opening post.

The E-Class outsells the C-Class. What a market we find ourselves in!

The E Class also outsold the C- Class in US for the month of September.
To give perspective, the C- Classe sales actually grew MoM, even so the E overtook it. IMO, its the 1st time that its happened in a long long time!!

I am just bowled over by the E- Class ever since I lived with it for a few days- seemingly like many in US and India.

[noopster]

A quick comparison with Sep 2009 figures. Remember back then we were smack in the middle of a recession! Also, there might have been a specific dip in the month which we may not be able to account for. But the numbers are telling:

Small car segment: shows a massive growth of 10,000 cars/month, up 33% from last September. This has been single-handedly driven by the Alto (30K units compared to 20K). All the other players (Nano, Spark and M800) have degrown to on average half their Sep 2009 levels.

Hatchbacks:
- New launches account for a massive 13,282 cars (3000 Polos & Beats each, 6500 Figos and the rest Micras) in Sep 2010.
- Hyundai's i20 has grown a massive 84% to 7600+ units. Plus, back then even the Getz had 364 takers.
- Wagon R has grown 30% on a strong base to 14,000+ (courtesy the refresh no doubt). Swift performs strongly with 23% over last years almost-10K number. Ritz is stable at 6000-odd.
- i10 + Santro maintained a steady 21,000 between them.
-Big sufferer is Tata with Indica+Vista notching up barely 6000 to last year's almost-5 digit figure. Any idea what the reason is?
- The Punto sold only 900-odd this Sep, compared to last year's 1500+.


Sedans:
- 150% growth for the Indigos to 8783 units. This includes the Manza, which wasn't part of the stable in 2009.
- Honda City romps to over 6000 units from 4000-odd, despite the Vento notching up 1300-odd in its first month of launch.
- The Dzire matches its hatchback sibling's growth and is currently at an impressive 8500 units.
- Logan impresses with nearly double its 510 tally last year. Change of hands bearing fruit?
- SX4 is at an impressive 2000 units compared to around average 800 last year (Sep 09 was a temporary dip at 433).
-Skoda with Laura and the impressive Superb notch up a 1200+ number compared to last fall's 900. Altis also grows an impressive 20% to nearly 1100 units.
- Ford loses out big time with Fiesta + Ikon at barely half their 2009 tally of 3100.
- Linea like its hatch sibling, tanks 30% to just around 700. The Chevy twins (Aveo + Optra) follow suit, possibly showing their age.

Link to last September's thread: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...-analysis.html