Analysis and key takeaways on the Indian car scene for 2021

SUVs are now the No 1 segment of cars sold in India today. They are now at 40% compared to hatchbacks at 36%.

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The Year 2021 saw many upheavals in the form of both a deadly 2nd wave of Covid which virtually shut down the month of May as well as the serious shortage of computer chips that plays such a ubiquitous role in our lives in general and in the Team BHP context, cars in particular!

Despite these two serious hurdles, the industry did very well for itself and many of the trends that we have been seeing in the past continued their march into this year as well. The industry is at the cusp of a complete makeover thanks to the EV revolution that has made such a brilliant comeback from over a century ago where their slow speeds and heavyweight gave way to the then far more efficient ICE engines mass-produced so well by Henry Ford.

Maruti continues to be the top seller but headwinds in the form of the great SUV revolution that cares for none, least of all the mighty, and the shift in demand to the more expensive price bands in general, have caused a serious fall of over 6% in market share for the giant. Though the aficionados and well-wishers speak of the slew of models Maruti is slated to launch in this year of 2022, and how this would bring back lost market share, we all have to wait eagerly to see how it works out and what the competition has up its sleeve.

Let us start with the top 10 models that sold in 2021. 8 go to Maruti, 1 to Hyundai, and 1 to Tata:

 Despite the stellar showing in the top 10 models list, Maruti’s market share has fallen by almost 6%, thanks to an increase in Tata’s share by almost 4%. In December thanks to the better management of chips by the Tatas as compared to Hyundai, they were number 2:

Currently market share wise, the Tatas are around 5-6% short of Hyundai and if their current growth in numbers continues, it will be a matter of another 3-5 years when they make that a permanent storyline for some time to come.

Honorable mention - Tata Motors.

Tatas almost doubled sales in the past year. Commendable growth:

Price band Analysis:

The percentage of cars sold under 10 lakhs is approximately 53% today and is slated to go below the 50% mark this year in 2022. They were over 80% in 2011:

The number at the top for each segment in a year is the market share of the segment and the second number is the cumulative annual growth rate or CAGR over 5 years.

Body type analysis:

SUVs are now the No 1 segment of cars sold in India today. They are now at 40% compared to hatchbacks at 36%.

Almost half of all SUVs sold are in the 4-meter segment comprising the likes of the Vitara Brezza, Venue, Sonet, and Nexon. 1 in 5 cars sold is a 4-meter SUV across all groups!

The number at the top for each segment in a year is the market share of the segment and the second number is the cumulative annual growth rate or CAGR over 5 years.

SUV rankings:

• Hyundai beats Maruti to the top spot.
• Tata moves to No 3 from No 5.
• Maruti and Kia both drop by 1 rank.
• Tata moves up 2 places.
• Nissan moves up by 3 ranks from 12 to 9, thanks to the brilliant Magnite.
• Mahindra moves down continuously and is at No 5. We hope to see dramatic improvements this year with their awesome launches.

SUV sales over the decade:

The below is a chart of just the SUV sales across segments. The growth this year has been an amazing 56% despite all the bugbears the industry is facing due to the chip shortage:

 Overall PV Sales are back above the 3 million mark after 2018 growing by 27% over the previous year:

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