India July 2016: Maruti breaks record, places 7 models in Top 10

The VW Ameo lands in India this month.

* See the Top 15 brands and Top 90 models by clicking on the title *

The Indian new car market is up a flamboyant 17% year-on-year in July to 255.769 units excluding premium brands for which data is unavailable this month. This stellar figure brings the year-to-date tally to 1.669.155 after 7 months, up 8% on the same period last year. Market leaders Maruti (+14%) and Hyundai (+13%) gain slightly less ground than the market, resulting in market shares dipping a little but Maruti breaks its monthly volume record at 125.764 units, with a previous best of 121.063 hit last October. Hyundai for its part is above 40.000 units for the 9th time in the past 12 months.

The Maruti Vitara Brezza has established itself as the #1 SUV in India.

Mahindra is up a beautiful 18% to 15.929 sales in third place, Tata is up 31% to 13.578 but Honda is down 25% to 14.033. Renault remains by far the “most improved” manufacturer with deliveries up 7-fold on July 2015 thanks solely to the Kwid brilliantly stuck just under 10.000 monthly units. Ford (+62%) and Datsun (+298%) also impress, but Skoda (-25%), Chevrolet (-33%), Fiat (-34%) and Nissan (-36%) fall apart.

Based on the same platform, the Datsun RediGo and Renault Kwid are both stunning successes. 

Model-wise, the Maruti Alto saves its pole position by the skin of its teeth at -11% to 19.844 vs. 19.229 (-17%) for the Maruti DZire, with the Maruti Wagon R at #3 (-2%) and the Swift at #4 (-26%). But the tremendous success of the Maruti Vitara Brezza, now established as the best-selling SUV in India, up 5 spots on June to a record #6 and 10.212 sales – its first 5-figure month – as well as the Baleno at #9 (9.120 sales) enable Maruti to beat volume records. The Omni (#10) makes it 7 Marutis in the Top 10 and the Celerio (#12) 8 in the Top 12. The Hyundai Creta (+18%) is knocked out of the Top 10 but still posts solid figures, the Toyota Innova is up 43% thanks to the new Crysta model and the Maruti Ciaz (+147%) leads its segment at #16 vs. #20 for the Honda City.

The Tiago is the best-selling Tata passenger car in almost 3 years. 

Among recent launches, the Tata Tiago crosses the symbolic 5.000 monthly sales milestone (5.114), the first Tata passenger car to do so since the Indica/Vista in October 2013 while the Datsun RediGo confirms it is the most successful Datsun so far in India, up a further 5 spots and 35% on June to #21 and 3.940 sales – as a reminder the other two Datsuns monthly records are 2.690 in April 2014 for the GO and 1.563 in April 2015 for the GO+. Finally, we welcome the all-new VW Ameo, a Polo with a truncated boot, in the Indian sales charts at #32 with 2.200 deliveries to dealers for its inaugural month.

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

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

One year ago: India July 2015: Maruti above 50% share, Hyundai Creta in Top 10

Full July 2016 Top 15 brands and Top 90 models below.