November Passenger Cars Sales Analysis

It’s no surprise that the Indian passenger cars sales have been declining for some time now. The numbers in October too weren’t encouraging but the market was expected to show some growth in November. And that is what we got. The November sales of passenger cars in India have its own ups and downs for the manufacturers. The top sellers have managed to show some good year-on-year on growth while the manufacturers at the bottom half have dwelled deeper in to the ground. New cars and new segments are proving to be successful but still it has been hard for the manufacturers to keep up after the jump start of initial excitement.

Maruti Suzuki got back into the six figure sales mark after a long hiatus. Unsurprisingly, five of the top ten selling cars are from Maruti Suzuki portfolio. While the all-time favourite of Indian masses, the Alto and the refreshed Swift made the top crop, the Swift Dzire and Wagon R too held on to their leadership positions. The Ciaz, after a great start, managed to sell over 5200 units while the Celerio seems to be sinking under its own ground (reason may be losing the AMT exclusivity to the new Alto K10) with over around 4900 units. The Omni and Eeco has surprisingly clawed their way back into the sales chart with 7200 units and almost 5000 units respectively.

With 3 of its products in the top 10, Hyundai has proved its new product launch strategy a successful one. The latest offering, Elite i20 has sold 10500 units and with Hyundai confirming over 56000 bookings, the Elite i20 is certainly poised to be among the top sellers for many months to come. Similarly, the Grand i10 too has been turning good numbers and with over 8300 units has maintained its mark this month. While Eon is the last member from the company in the top ten with over 6600 units, Xcent has seen a decline in sales with almost 3900 units.

Honda managed to move over 15200 units with around 7200 units coming from the new Honda City, which managed to claw the segment leader position back from Maruti Suzuki Ciaz. Honda Mobilio sold over 3500 units while the Amaze comes next with around 3300 units.

Mahindra has lost 18% sales in November 2014 when compared to the same month last year. Mahindra Bolero has been on the top 10 sellers list forever but this time it comes at the 10th position. The new Scorpio has managed to sell over 4200 units but nothing joyful about the sales of the XUV500 or other products.

Toyota Innova’s popularity remains the same as ever and it reflects in the sales with over 5300 units. The new Corolla Altis too has become the top seller in its segment. The Etios family still struggles to sell in India and Toyota should start looking at all new products in the segment.

Tata’s has posted a 16% growth when compared to last November thanks to the new Zest sedan and the company will look to post more numbers with the launch of Bolt happening soon.

Ford and Chevrolet have posted a decline in sales with 28% and 36% respectively. The Blue Oval brand has always been a one car wonder that brought in the sales and that too now hangs in balance. The Ford EcoSport has failed to sustain the aftermath of initial hype and the long waiting periods are also not helping. The bow tie brand on the other hand, has many models but none of them is wanted by the customers. Even the mighty Cruze can’t hold on to its ground. The Sail twins have failed to bring the company back to the land of sales.

The Volkswagen group is all set to sell over 10 million vehicles globally this year but in India, the Volkswagen and Skoda are both finding it hard to sell cars. The new Polo has shown some satisfactory numbers thanks to the new engine but that’s that.

The Renault-Nissan alliance is getting weaker and weaker with the collapsing sales. Only Renault Duster has managed to sell some decent numbers with the other models (read Nissan Terrano) losing their shine too fast. Datsun Go has failed miserably to find buyers and the latest safety issue being the last nail.