January 2019 Car Sales – Snapshot

The Passenger Car Sales degrew -1.8% in Jan’19 v/s Jan’18. Due to muted demand and weak consumer sentiment; the Industry is under consistent pressure and last few months have been very challenging. Even though Jan’19 had 3 bigh-ticket launches – Wagon R, Harrier and Kicks; their contribution to the respective OEM volumes wasn’t significant. It is even worrisome to imagine the condition without these new launches. It was also very disappointing to see that there were no major announcements in today’s budget that could have supported the Auto Sector. Let’s see how the OEMs fared in Jan’19 –

1. The Top 4 OEMs posted a positive / flat YoY growth in Jan’19.

2. Maruti Suzuki reported a meager 0.2 per cent increase in its domestic sales at 1,39,440 units in Jan’19 v/s 1,39,189 cars sold in Jan’18.

3. Nexa seems to be struggling while it reported a -25% degrowth in YoY sales. Even with the launch of New Baleno; Nexa wasn’t able to recover the volumes and post a positive growth.

4. Hyundai could grow 1% in Jan’19 v/s the same period last year. Even post Santro launch; Hyundai hasn’t gained significant numbers. However; Santro has helped Hyundai survive in tough times and maintain its volumes.

5. Honda pips Tata as the 4th Biggest OEM for Jan’19! Honda has registered the highest YoY growth of 23% in Jan’19! Amaze has done wonders for the Japanese OEM and helped it gain considerable volume since launch.

6. Tata posted a degrowth of -13% even post the Harrier launch.

How the Market Shares fluctuated in Jan’19 v/s Jan’18 –

1. Maruti was again successful in garnering >50% Market Share. The Market Share has grown by 1% YoY

2. Tata has lost the highest Market Share at -0.8%.