Maruti Suzuki accounts for four of top five cars sold in country

Even as passenger cars sales hit a decade-low mark in the last financial year, the country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki managed to retain volumes with four of its best selling models inching their way up to claim spots among the top five passenger vehicles sold in the country.

Though sales of small car Alto declined by 13.5% to 266,785 units, the car continued to dominate the number one slot.

Interestingly, despite sales falling at the entry-level, demand notched up for mid-range premium models such as Swift and DZire.

While sales of Swift went up by over 20% to 184,897 units helping it to retain the second position, sedan DZire (with sales of 169,571 units) grew volumes by 54% edged out the WagonR (135,694 units) to become the third best-selling car in the country.

Highlighting the increasing preference of Indian customers for diesel-powered utility vehicles, Mahindra & Mahindra Bolero zoomed its way into the top five list with sales of 117,666 units. This is the first time in the last five years that has featured in the top five list in a country which is known for its love for small cars.

Reinforcing this trend for premium mid-range cars in the Indian market, Hyundai i10 sales too slid by 25% during the fiscal. The i10 slipped to the sixth position from the third slot it had held a year earlier.

Ertiga, which debuted a year earlier in April last year gave strong competition to Toyota Innova. Maruti Suzuki sold 76,375 units as compared to 77,062 units of Toyota Innova. Ertiga displaced Mahindra Scorpio to claim for itself the third spot in the top selling utility vehicles in India. Utility vehicles contribute as much as 21% to overall passenger vehicles sold in the country.

Sales of UVs had grown by a whopping 52% last fiscal as compared to the tepud growth of 2.15% recorded in the PV market in the same period.

For the entire fiscal, Maruti Suzuki’s sales increased by around five% to sell 1.05 million units. The company’s market share improved marginally to 39.12% as against 38.27% recorded on close of the previous fiscal.

Top five passenger vehicles sold in FY13

<sup>Alto – 2,66,785 units

Swift – 1,84,897 units

DZire – 1,69,571 units

WagonR- 1,35,694 units

Bolero – 1,17,666 units</sup>