India February 2016: Renault Kwid hits #8 overall, Tata Tiago lands

The Renault Kwid crosses the 7.500 monthly sales in February.

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Timid growth for new car sales in India in February: up 2.5% year-on-year to 233.335 registrations, meaning the year-to-date total after two months is up 6.5% to 464.587 units. Maruti-Suzuki shaves off scraps of market share with stable sales to 108.115 delivers and 46.3% share, towering above Hyundai up 9% to 17.4% while Mahindra benefits from the recent launches of the KUV100 and TUV300 with sales up 28% to 22.275 and 9.5% share. Honda (-23%), Tata (-20%) and Toyota (-13%) crumble down whereas Renault shoots up 158% to 7th place and 8.834 sales.

Tata Tiago. Picture Gaadi.com

Once again the big story in the models ranking is the gearing up of the Renault Kwid, hitting a new ranking record at #8 and a new delivery high at 7.544 sales now that the production has been increased to 8.000 units/month to be further boosted to 10.000 in March. Local analysts are unanimous: the Kwid should hit 10.000 sales in the coming months. This is shaping up to be an outstanding success in India for the French manufacturer that may well have cracked the ultra low-cost equation. The Maruti Alto (-17%) seems affected while the Hyundai Eon (-23%) is beaten. For comparison in a very difficult segment, the Datsun GO never managed more than 2.690 monthly sales (April 2014) and the Tata Nano peaked at 10.475 units in March 2012 but hasn’t delivered a 5.000+ sales month in over 3 years.

The Mahindra KUV100 is now among India’s 20 best-selling nameplates. 

Hyundai maintains its best-sellers at very high levels, placing three nameplates in the Top 7: the Elite i20 (-1%), Grand i10 (+2%) and Creta, beating its monthly sales record at 8.196 units. The Maruti Baleno (6.888 sales) is kicked outside the Top 10 at #11 but remains strong, the Maruti Ciaz (-5%) takes the lead of its segment above the Honda City (-25%), the Mahindra KUV100 breaks into the Top 20 for its 2nd month of sales at 4.486 units, the Maruti S-Cross stabilises around 2.500 sales (#27) and the Datsun GO gets a 2nd wind with sales up 98% to 1.414 (#35). After rushing to rename the car from Zica due to the Brazilian virus outbreak, Tata places the Tiago at #41 with 1.096 units for its appearance in the Indian charts. The next few month will tell whether this tiny vehicle can revive Tata’s hopes after the brutal flops of the Nano, Bolt and Zest.

Previous month: India January 2016: Mahindra hits the mark with the KUV100

One year ago: India February 2015: Maruti Alto and Hyundai Elite i20 strong

Full February 2016 Top 20 brands and Top 100 models below.