India First Half 2016: Renault Kwid instant blockbuster, hurts Maruti Alto

The Renault Kwid has played a role in the Maruti Alto’s weakness so far this year.

* See the Top 20 best-selling brands and Top 100 models by clicking on the title *

Halfway through 2016, Indian new car sales are up 4% year-on-year to 1.413.386 units, positioning this market just below the UK (1.420.636) in the fight for 5th worldwide place below China, the U.S., Japan and Germany. Maruti – the Indian subsidiary of Japanese carmaker Suzuki – manages to improve an already overwhelming market share to 46.4% thanks to sales slightly outpacing the market at +5% to 655.733 units. Its two followers, although light-years below, improve faster: Hyundai is up 9% to 243.441 and 17.2% share and Mahindra up 18% to 121.490 and 8.6%. But all is not rosy for carmakers present in India: within the Top 10, Honda (-22%), Tata (-16%), Toyota (-15%), Volkswagen (-13%) and Chevrolet (-32%) all fall heavily. The main event of this first half of 2016 in India is the roaring success of Renault.

The French carmaker is up 170% over the same period in 2015 thanks solely to the Kwid. The small crossover-looking entry-level hatch is an instant blockbuster in India, clocking up 66.000 sales in 10 months and flirting with the 10,000 monthly sales. Meanwhile the market leader and direct Kwid competitor the Maruti Alto is dropping to 15.750 in June, its lowest level in 4 years, and is down 16% so far in 2016. Clearly the Kwid has hurt the performance of the Alto. See the video above for what local magazine Autocar India had to say about the Kwid vs. its direct competitors the Suzuki Alto and Hyundai Eon.

The Maruti Vitara Brezza was the best-selling SUV in India in May. 

Maruti’s best-sellers are struggling this year, with the DZire down 14% in 2nd place and the Swift down 26% to #4, cannibalised by the Baleno, the 2nd most popular all-new nameplate over the period at 47.355 sales below just the Kwid (48.126). The Hyundai Grand i10 (+16%) is in great shape, even snapping its very first podium ranking in June, while the Hyundai Creta is the best-selling SUV in the country with 45.605 units. It will however be under intense pressure from the Maruti Vitara Brezza over H2 2016. Small Indian crossovers are having the time of their life: the Mahindra KUV100 (26.142) and TUV300 (14.617) are the next most popular launches of 2016.

The Datsun RediGO is off to a much better start than the GO or GO+ before it. 

If the Tata Tiago is slowly climbing up the ladder (#17 in June), the Datsun RediGO could be just what the doctor ordered for the struggling reborn marque, up 25% so far this year to 13.572 sales and 1% share with the RediGO beating both the brand’s previous attempts for its first full month of sales in June at 2.925 units vs. all-time bests of 2.690 for the GO and 1.563 for the GO+.

Previous post: India June 2016: Hyundai Grand i10 on podium, Renault Kwid up to #5

One year ago:: India 1st Half 2015: Maruti, Hyundai and Honda impress

Full H1 2016 Top 20 brands and Top 100 models vs. Full H1 2015 figures below.