Maruti Suzuki’s small cars rise; M&M tops Hyundai, Tata in July sales

Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest automobile manufacturer, has witnessed revival in its small car portfolio even as it SUVs (sports utility vehicles) declined in July. The company’s small car segment with models like Baleno, WagonR, Swift, Dzire, Ignis, and Celerio witnessed a growth of 12% to 65,667 units as against 58,662 units in July last year. Alto and S-Presso models, however, continued to witness pressure with sales dropping by 31.5% to 6,822 in July this year.

Meanwhile, the company’s utility vehicle portfolio with models such as Brezza, Ertiga, Fronx, Grand Vitara, Invicto, Jimny and XL6 declined by 6.26% to 52,773 units in July this year as against 56,302 units sold in the same period last year. The development comes at a time when the entry-level sales have lost steam over the past few years. The company’s total sales remained flat at 140,570 units as against 140,354 units in the same period last year.

Partho Banerjee, Head of Sales and Marketing at Maruti Suzuki India Limited, attributes the surge to limited edition variants of these models and the festive season.

Notably, Mahindra & Mahindra continued to lead the number two spot in July wholesales. The company’s strong SUV portfolio aided in a 20% increase in July sales to 49,871 units, as against 41,623 units sold in the same period last year.

Hyundai Motor India, on the other hand, sold 43,973 units in the domestic market. Tata Motors witnessed an 11% decline in its sales to 40,175 units as against 44,954 units in the same period last year.