India September 2012: Renault Duster up, Mahindra Quanto lands

Renault Duster

* See the Top 50 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

After a month of August disrupted by labour unrest, the Indian new car market is back up 4% year-on-year in September to 214,796 registrations, the highest result since last April and bringing the year-to-date total to 1,993,067 units, up 9% on 2011. The models ranking is back to a little bit more normality in September: the Maruti Alto sells 21,209 units for a 9.9% share, still not record levels but way better than the 10,488 sales and 6.1% it lodged last month… In 2nd place, the Maruti Wagon R hits its highest market share in nearly 2 years at 7.7% thanks to 16,456 units, its 2nd best monthly figure after the 16,952 it sold in October 2010…

Maruti Wagon R

The Maruti DZire is back up to #3 with 11,694 sales and 5.4% ahead of the Mahindra Bolero at 9,499 units and 4.4% and the Maruti Swift with 9,136 sales and 4.3%. Solid month for the Hyundai i10 (#6), Tata Indica/Vista (#7) and Hyundai i20 (#8) while at #9, the Maruti Ritz (aka Suzuki Splash) simply delivers its highest volume ever at 7,598 sales and its highest share in 2 years at 3.5%. Note the Tata Nano hits its lowest ranking since November 2011 at #16.

Mahindra XUV500

Mahindra Quanto

The Mahindra XUV500 celebrates its first year in market and beats its Indian ranking record for the 6th consecutive month at #17 thanks to 4,603 sales (volume record) for a 2.1% market share. Renault can’t produce Indian Dusters fast enough: it sells 4,211 for only its third month of sales, breaking into the Top 20 for the first time at #20 and 2% share.

Renault Scala

Finally, we welcome the Mahindra Quanto in the ranking: it makes its first appearance at #33 with 1,782 sales and 0.8% share. Notice also the Renault Scala (a rebadged Nissan Sunny) up 16 spots on August for its 2nd month of sales to break into the Top 50 at #44 with 688 units and 0.3% and the Hyundai Elantra already dominating its category at #43 with 781 sales.

Previous month: India August 2012: Maruti labour unrest sends models ranking wild

One year ago: India September 2011: Hyundai Eon starts with a bang

Full September 2012 Top 50 Ranking Table below.