India Full Year 2020: Kia up to #4, Maruti Swift topples Alto in market down -17.3%

The Maruti Swift is the best-selling vehicle in India in 2020.

Explore over 60 years of Indian Historical data here.

Perhaps more than most markets, India has been on a rollercoaster ride in 2020. Wholesales and retail sales were down to zero in April as the country was under strict Covid-19 lockdown measures, but the market spectacularly rallied back up from August onwards, notably thanks to successful new launches. August was up 19.6% year-on-year, September up 31.4%, October up 17.5%, November up 8.9% and December up 17.7%. However due to a paltry start of the year, the annual tally is down -17.3% to 2.428.327, the lowest result since 2011.

Kia ends its first full year of sales as the #4 brand in India.

In the brands ranking, Maruti (-18.3%) can’t quite match the market evolution and sees its share dip slightly from 50.6% to a still overwhelming 50% for the year. Hyundai (-16.9%) almost exactly matches the market to remain at 17.4% share while Tata (+10.8%) swims upstream and gains almost two percentage points of share from 5.2% to 7%. One of the main events of the year is the continued success of Kia (+210.2%) up to 4th place over and 5.8% share for its first full year in market with a locally-assembled lineup now composed of 3 models: the Seltos, Carnival and Sonet. Renault (-9.4%) resists thanks to the Triber and is up one spot to #6 while MG (+76.8%) cracks the Indian Top 10 for its first full year of sales at 1.2% share.

The Hyundai Creta was #1 in May.

Over in the models ranking, we have a rare new leader: the Maruti Swift (-16.2%) leaping up two spots on 2019 to score its very first annual win, toppling the Maruti Alto (-26%) is precarious shape. The Swift led the monthly charts 5 times in 2020 including 4 consecutive months from August to November, while the Alto led 3 times. The Maruti Baleno (-16.2%) climbs onto the annual podium and led in March, it distances the Maruti Wagon R (-4.9%) also up one spot on last year and the Maruti DZire (-37.2%) down 3 ranks to #5 after leading the Indian charts in January. The Eeco (-12.8%) is up two spots to #6 meaning there are 6 Marutis in the Top 6 for the third year running. The Hyundai Creta (-2.8%) climbs 3 ranks to #7 and best-selling non-Maruti in the country. In May, the Hyundai Creta even became the first non-Maruti to rank #1 in India in 35 years, since the decades-long reign of the Hindustan Ambassador. The Kia Seltos (+112.6%) ends its first full year in market at a splendid 8th place above the Hyundai Grand i10 (-10.5%). The most popular 2020 launches are the Tata Altroz (#19) and Kia Sonet (#21) peaking at #7 in November.

Previous month: India November 2020: Market growth slows to 8.9%, Tata up 108.1%, MG breaks volume record

Previous year: India 2019: Kia biggest launch in history, Maruti Alto back to #1, Wagon R and Baleno win month in steep market fall (-12.3%)

Two years ago: India 2018: Maruti DZire ends 13 years of Alto reign, 6 Marutis in Top 6

Full December 2020 Top 15 All-brands and Top 75 All-models below.

Full Year 2020 Top 15 All-brands and Top 110 All-models vs. Full Year 2019 figures below.