India Full Year 2015: Maruti tightens grip on record market

The Hyundai Elite i20 redefines the ‘premium’ segment in India. Picture zeegnition.com

* See the Top 15 brands and Top 75 models by clicking on the title *

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The Indian new car market flies off to an all-time record year in 2015 at 2.771.617 registrations, up 9% on 2014 and beating the previous all-time best of 2.65 million units in 2012. Note these figures dosn’t include LCV sales. Local behemoth Maruti Suzuki is far from succumbing to the constant afflux of new brands and models coming into the booming Indian market, and is actually tightening its grip thanks to a growing offer tailored very precisely to the unique needs of the Indian customer. Maruti goes from 43.1% share of its home market in 2013 to 45.2% in 2014 and 46.5% this year, now seriously flirting with a mind-blowing 50% overall market share – a milestone it crossed for the first time in July.

Maruti Baleno. Picture autocarindia.com

For the fourth consecutive year the 4 best-selling nameplates in India are Marutis: Alto (+3%), DZire (+12%), Swift (+2%) and Wagon R (+7%), the latter 3 all breaking their all-time annual volume records. But the real source of optimism comes from recent launches delivering very solid results: the Celerio is now a regular Top 10 seller, up 23% to #8 this year, the Ciaz has found its way to #16 for its first full year in a difficult segment, but the most promising of all is the Baleno distributed exclusively in Maruti Suzuki’s new premium Nexa dealership network and achieving 23.875 deliveries in just 3 months, including a stunning 10.275 in December- albeit partly at the expense of the Swift.

The Creta boosted Hyundai to a string of monthly volume records. Picture motorbeam.com

It has been a breakthrough year for Hyundai in India: the Korean manufacturer sold over 40.000 monthly units for the first time ever in August, and remained at that level through to the end of the year, establishing a new monthly volume record at 47.015 in October and naturally a new annual volume record at 476.001 units, up 16% on 2014. Hyundai will be above the half-million mark in 2016, a very impressive achievement. This means Maruti and Hyundai hold a combined 63.7% share of the Indian market in 2015: almost 2 in every 3 cars sold in the country! Hyundai’s performance stems from excellent scores by the Elite i20 up 88% to 5th place overall for its first full year in market, the Grand i10 up 20% to #6 and the Creta SUV – the most popular new entrant in 2015 at #20 with 40.952 sales, peaking at #8 from August to October.

The Kwid could lift Renault to #5 in 2016. Picture motorbeam.com

Mahindra drops 1% but remains in third place overall, under intense pressure from Honda (+13%) bolstered by the City (#9) and a very successful relaunch of the Jazz nameplate (#25). Tata (+10%) edges past Toyota (+5%) for 5th place but the all-new Zest (#27) and Bolt (#43) have been the biggest disappointments of 2015. In December Renault entered the race for 5th place, delivering its first-ever 5-digit monthly score (10.292) thanks to a very impressive start for the Kwid (80.000 bookings). The French carmaker will top 100.000 annual units in 2016 and could tease both Tata and Toyota. Chevrolet (-37%) and Nissan (-41%) crumble down, and if Datsun is up 45% it’s mainly due to the addition of the GO+ which delivered lukewarm results. Mercedes (+33%) reclaims the luxury crown off Audi.

Previous post: India December 2015: Kwid in Top 10, lifts Renault to record month

Previous year: India Full Year 2014: Datsun GO underwhelms in market back up

Two years ago: India Full Year 2013: Maruti Alto #1, Swift, DZire and Wagon R break records

Full Year 2015 Top 15 brands and Top 70 models vs. Full Year 2014 figures below.