India First Half 2019: Maruti Alto back in charge, Mahindra (+6.6%) swims upstream in market down -9.9%

The Maruti Alto returns to #1 in India.

After a string of all-time volume records (2017 and 2018), the Indian new car wholesales market hits the brakes in 2019, falling a painful -9.9% year-on-year to an estimated 1.554.407 units excluding light commercials. This is the harshest decline at this stage of the year since 2013 (-10.3%). Brand leader and Suzuki subsidiary Maruti (-11%) falls faster than the market but manages to remain above the symbolic 50% share mark at 50.5%. Hyundai (-5.6%) resists and improves its share from 15.9% a year ago to 16.7%, while Mahindra (+6.6%) delivers the best performance and only gain in the Top 15, reaching 8.3% share vs. just 7% over H1 2018. Below, only Honda (-1%), Nissan (-6.3%) and Toyota (-9.4%) manage to outpace the market among brands officially sharing sales data whereas Datsun (-50.9%), Jeep (-37.2%), Ford (-22.1%) and Volkswagen (-21.5%). Among premium brands not sharing data, we estimate Mini (+53.7%), Jaguar Land Rover (+30.6%) and Volvo (+20.1%) to gain ground, however they all remain at 0.1% share or less.

Thanks to the new XUV300, Mahindra is the only Top 15 carmaker in positive.

Model-wise, after having its 13-year long reign cut short by the Maruti Dzire last year, the Maruti Alto (-0.5%) manages to remain almost immobile in the face of a depressed market and reclaims the pole position off the Dzire (-25.6%) in dire straits. Like last year, the entire Top 6 best-sellers are all Marutis and, apart from the swap at the top, remain unchanged: the Swift (-9.6%) rounds up the podium above the Baleno (-8.7%), Wagon R (-9.6%) and Vitara Brezza (-7.2%). As usual, only Hyundai also manages to place models in the Top 10, with the Elite i20 (-9.2%), Creta (-0.4%) and Grand i10 (-25%) while the Maruti Eeco (+43.4%) replaces the Celerio (-14%) and the Ertiga (+63.1%) surfs on the new generation to end the period just outside the Top 10.

Hyundai Santro

The Top 10 order will be reshuffled over H2 with the arrival of the Hyundai Venue in May, already ranking #9 in June just 108 units below the Vitara Brezza. It’s the Hyundai Santro however that for now holds the title of best-selling new launch at #14, but it hasn’t cracked the Top 10 since last November. It distances the Mahindra XUV300 (#21), based on the European-spec Ssangyong Tivoli, the Hyundai Venue (#27), Mahindra Marazzo (#29), Tata Harrier (#36) and Toyota Glanza (#48), a rebadged Maruti Baleno.

Previous post: India June 2019: Hyundai Venue breaks into Top 10, threatens Maruti Vitara Brezza in third straight double-digit market drop (-17.6%)

One year ago: India First Half 2018: Maruti above 50%, Dzire to end 13-year Alto reign

Full H1 2019 Top 25 All-brands and Top 100 models below.