Small cars in India still form a major chunk of the market, but its share is diminishing with each passing month. The Alto has seen some ditches in the past, when it gave way to Swift and Dzire as the higher sellers, but it still remains the undisputed champion of the segment.
We have officially got hold of car sales figures and in this article we will talk about all the entry level A and B1 segment hatchbacks which include…
- Tata Nano
- Chevrolet Spark
- Hyundai Santro and Eon
- Maruti Suzuki M800, Alto twins and WagonR
*Classification according to SIAM
September 2014 Car Sales Reports
Here are the individual sales figures for these cars…
September 2014 Entry Car Hatchback Sales Report | |||||
Monthly | Cumulative | ||||
Manufacturer | Cars | Sep-13 | Sep-14 | Apr-Sep 2013 | Apr-Sep 2014 |
Maruti Suzuki | WagonR, Alto, M800 | 48,128 | 37,824 | 2,48,312 | 2,42,076 |
Hyundai | Santro, Eon | 12,436 | 9,880 | 80,298 | 68,654 |
Chevrolet | Spark | 236 | 157 | 1643 | 839 |
Tata Motors | Nano | 2,027 | 1,780 | 10,488 | 6,519 |
Key Pointers to Note
September 2014 Sales
- Maruti, the country’s largest car manufacturer undoubtedly emerges as the ruler of the entry level segment.
- The company rolled out 37,824 units of Alto 800, Maruti 800 and Wagon R combined in September 2014, against the 48,128 units of the same it sold in September 2013 (A-star was included in last years sales).
- Interestingly, SIAM classifies Celerio in a higher segment and hence its sales are not included here.
- Hyundai comes a distant second in this segment. The company sold 9,880 units of Santro and Eon in September 2014, as against 12,436 units in the same month last year.
- Third is Tata with their Nano which is just not able to sell the car any which way (even with a power steering on the Nano Twist). At 1780 units, it has fallen from over 2000 units last September.
- Chevrolet Spark also continued to plunge downhill with just 157 units sold in September 2014 as compared to 263 units in September 2013. No surprises there as General Motors seems to have forgotten all about the Spark we believe it is present there just for the sake of it!
Total Sales Between April to September 2014
- Not much changes in terms of standings when we talk about cumulative sales for this financial year till now.
- The most important trend which is being noticed is that all these entry level cars are loosing share, hinting at how people are preferring slightly bigger cars as their first buys.
- Every manufacturer, including Maruti has lost a wee bit of sales here as compared to the same period last year.
- Spark is out of the game and Nano, with 6500 odd sales in 6 months doesn’t look like a good prospect for the company at this moment. This, when we are considering the total monthly production capacity of the car is 20,000 units. At this rate, it will not reach this figure in over 1.5 years!
Upcoming Launches in this Segment
- Maruti is all set to launch the Alto K10 facelift which will come with an Automatic gearbox (AMT), most probably within this month. The WagonR may also get some wee bit of updates and an AMT box sometime early next year.
- Very recently Hyundai launched the Eon with a bigger 1.0L petrol engine. Hyundai may also consider plonking an AMT sometime later, but nothing is known at this moment.
- Nano is soon to get an openable tailgate and an AMT. There may be a few more higher variants in pipeline.
Next up, we will share individual car sales for the B+ or B2 segment which comprises of cars like Swift, Figo, Punto and others. Stay tuned!