India April 2015: Renault Lodgy lands with 2.032 sales

The Renault Lodgy has made its entrance on the Indian market.

* See the Top 60 best-selling models and Top 15 brands by clicking on the title *

Traditionally a slower month as it is the start of the new financial year and March sales always get boosted by increased incentives, April bucks the trend this year in India: up a fantastic 19% year-on-year to 214.169 registrations (excluding commercial vehicles and luxury brands), which brings the year-to-date total to 890.027 units, up 5% on 2014. Maruti outsmarts the market once again with sales up 27% to 100.709 units, leading to a mammoth 47% market share. In fact the Top 5 brands account for no less than 84.8% of the Indian market in April, with Hyundai up 10% to 18% share, Mahindra back up to #3 but with stable sales year-on-year, Honda up 15% and Toyota shooting up 63% thanks to the Innova (+47%), Etios Liva (+83%) and Fortuner (+80%).

It’s official: the Tata Bolt is a flop.

Tata is up 37% in 6th place but at 10.230 sales it posts its weakest monthly score since July 2014. The Tata brand has taken a beating at home in India and is struggling to regain the trust of car buyers: Tata’s best-seller is still the Indica/Vista (2.652) outselling the new Bolt (633) by a 4 to 1 margin while the Indigo/Manza (2.165) outsells the new Zest (1.989)… The Nano (1.486) still hasn’t taken off despite numerous facelifts, relaunches and refurbishes. Finally Datsun (2.625) outsells its parent company Nissan (1.634) for the first time since April 2014, with the GO+ MPV gradually improving to a best-ever – but still disappointing – 1.563 units this month, while the GO is back above 1.000 monthly deliveries (1.062) for the first time since last October but still down a tough 61% year-on-year.

Datsun GO+ – Datsun outsells Nissan for the first time this year.

The Maruti Alto (+28%) keeps the lead of the models ranking, increasing the gap with its pursuants the Maruti Swift (+16%) and Swift DZire (+14%) while the Maruti Wagon R is boosted up 49% to 13.872 registrations. The Hyundai Elite i20 posts a 2nd consecutive month above 12.000 deliveries (12.425), up almost 4-fold on the nameplate’s score from a year ago. The main novelty in the April models ranking in India is the arrival of the Renault Lodgy MPV at #29 with an excellent 2.032 sales, or third in its segment below the Toyota Innova (5.285) and Maruti Ertiga (4.181) and above the Honda Mobilio (689). The Lodgy kicks the Duster down 46% year-on-year to #31, and given Indian data tracks sales to dealers, it will take a couple of months before we can establish whether the Lodgy is a success or not.

Previous post: India 1st Quarter 2015: Maruti and Hyundai dominate market up 2%

Previous month: India March 2015: Hyundai Elite i20 breaks volume record

One year ago: India April 2014: Hyundai Xcent instant hit, Datsun Go sells more than entire Nissan range

Full April 2015 Top 60 models and Top 15 brands below.