Dispatches during the festive month of October were slightly lower than previous month as dealers expected demand to taper off and discount levels to rise once again.
Into its sixth month Maruti Suzuki Dzire topped the charts for the third time in a row selling 20610 units during October even as Maruti’s old warhorse Alto was immediately behind with 19,447 units sold during the same month.
Premium hatchback Baleno, which is one of the two runaway hits from Maruti Suzuki, clocked volumes of 14,532 units last month. The Baleno was also the third high-selling model for the industry.
Some of the older models of Maruti Suzuki such as Wagon R, Swift, Ciaz and Ertiga did not grow while the newly launched S-Cross more than doubled volumes in October.
Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., poses with the newly launched Vitara Brezza car in Mumbai, India, March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui - RTS9TEY
Total domestic passenger vehicle volumes of the market leader grew by 9.3 percent to 1.35 lakh units as against 1.23 lakh units sold in the same month last year.
Korean car brand Hyundai reported a slight fall in sales in October to 49588 units as compared to 50017 units. Its Grand i10 was the highest-seller clocking 14417 units followed by i20 Elite with sales of 11012 units. Creta, the compact SUV, reported a growth selling 9248 units.
Mahindra & Mahindra disappointed in October with a fall of 5 percent clocking 23413 units as against 24737 units. Scorpio volumes went down perhaps with the anticipation of the facelift version due to hit the market next week.
While Bolero volumes remained flat, Scorpio reported a drop of 35 percent during October. However, thanks to the new model, the KUV100 clocked a growth of 38 percent to emerge as the second highest selling model for M&M.
Tata Motors emerged as the fourth highest seller of passenger vehicles in October beating Honda Cars India with sales of 16475 as against 14234 units clocked by the Japanese company.
Tiago continued to attract buyers with sales of 7000 units emerging the 12th best-selling model while Nexon celebrated its first full month in the market with sales of 3100 units. Nexon became the second highest selling compact SUV in its class behind Maruti Suzuki Brezza but ahead of Ford Ecosport.
This week Ford launched the facelifted version of the EcoSport at about the same price as the outgoing model. However, it is still significantly higher than the Nexon. Ford volumes dipped by 44 percent during October as the company was preparing withdrawal of the older generation EcoSport.
Volumes of Honda Cars India were hit due to launch of the all-new Verna from Hyundai which impacted volumes of the former segment best-seller City. Overall volumes of Honda declined by 9 percent to 14234 units as against 15567 units sold in the same month last year.
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