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February 2016 saw the hosting of the biggest Automotive Exhibition in Asia with the hopes of spearheading the good times for the industry in the subcontinent. But, the absence of big (rather exciting) launches and the increased ‘cess’ proved to have an adverse effect on the consumer sentiment. The only notable showcases in the last month’s auto expo was the Brezza/Ignis from Maruti, BR-V from Honda and Hexa/Kite S from Tata.
The OEMs to taste growth in Feb’16 were primarily fueled with new ‘performing’ products in their portfolio – say Baleno for Maruti, Creta for Hyundai, KUV100 for Mahindra & Kwid for Renault. While other OEMs took the beating for not having a ‘FRESH’ offering! Renault & Honda have eventually launched refreshed avatars of their successful, yet currently ailing Duster and Amaze in Mar’16 – will the makeover help? Wait for Apr’16 for the answer.
February 2016 car sales data
India’s largest car manufacturer – Maruti Suzuki again played all its cards and could successfully cross the 1 Lakh figure yet again! Though it saw a YoY decline in sales of its stalwart Alto, Swift, Celerio, Wagon-R & Ritz; additional numbers from its so called premium brand Nexa (Baleno & S-Cross) helped the Japanese car maker project growth in Feb’16. Rather surprising was the impressive growth in Omni & Eeco (8% & 13% respectively!). All this was attained even though the company’s production was disrupted from the Jat agitation (as the production was temporarily suspended).
Korean Major Hyundai is basking on the glory of Creta’s blockbuster success. Also to be appreciated is the OEM’s response to customer demand and manufacture >8000 units of Creta from its production line. It clearly exhibits the automaker’s seriousness for the Indian market and also the sensitivity to cater to the demand. i20 shows no sign of weakness from the stiff competition of Baleno/Jazz and proudly posts >10k sales figure yet again! However, Eon starts to face the heat from the French K(w)id! Renault is slowly eating into Eon’s sales (similar to what Creta did to Duster!).
Mahindra leads by example to define what ‘Jugaad’ really means! First develop a 1.99 L engine for its top selling market (Delhi), then build a compact SUV for Urban consumer and then offer a pseudo SUV-hatch for the mass buyer! The Indian OEM simply puts the global MNCs to shame in terms of its speed of market response and consumer demand. KUV100 has strongly placed the SUV-major in the hatchback race and the carmaker is slowly experiencing the taste of sales of petrol cars! M&M is now all set to revamp its ailing (or call it failing) Quanto and have termed it as Nuvosport! But the real concern lies in the fact that Mahindra would have experienced a de-growth of 13% if TUV & KUV wouldn’t be there in its portfolio this year!
Honda continues its fluctuating performance. Many-a-times it is difficult to assess on the month on month variance in their sales statistics. Ex: City’s performance in Feb’16 saw a YoY degrowth of 25% and MoM degrowth of 39%! (from a sales of 8037 units in Jan’16 to 4880 units in Feb’16). Also interesting is to see the lesser demand Amaze project a MoM growth (17% growth) and the newer sibling Jazz experiencing a MoM degrowth (-29%). In overall, the variance has costed the Japanese OEM its third position and seems that it’ll be unable to recover the loss and stay behind M&M for a while now.
Tata started shipping the Tiago from Feb’16. But yet the overall numbers decline! Even with the promising line up and impressive launches (Zest & Bolt) in the past year, the Indian consumer seems unforgiving for the past quality glitches and the brand fails to deliver. Can Zica finally change the game for Tata?
Lets look at the Top 25 selling cars of Feb’16 –
TRIVIA – Maruti has 10 products in top 20 selling cars, Hyundai has 3 offerings in Top 10 & Renault has a formidable entrant in Top 10!
Sales Estimate of Luxury Brands for Feb’16 –
