Dzire topples Alto to emerge as the largest selling model in August

Sales of the Maruti Suzuki Dzire shot through the roof as the model became highest-selling car during the last month dethroning the long-time champion Alto.

Dzire, whose all-new avatar was launched by the car market leader in May, saw doubling of sales in August to 30,934 units, as against 15,766 units sold in the same month last year.

The entry hatchback Alto still clocked 21,521 units, a growth of 3 percent last month. Volumes of the Baleno, which is nearly two years old, nearly doubled last month to 17,190 units.

Overall Maruti remained the outlier in the industry bucking the trend with a growth of 26 percent. While new products have made their mark for the company, starting of the new capacity in Gujarat has dramatically improved sales. Its market share in August closed at 52.15 percent up from 50.7 percent clocked in July.

Korean brand Hyundai saw an unusual spurt in volumes of the Creta, its urban sports utility vehicle, which grew by 20 percent last month. Buyers could have advanced their purchase of this SUV to beat the imminent hike in price which could rise by a maximum of 10 percent in a few days.

The surprise came from Tata Motors whose Tiago hatchback clocked 55 percent increase in volumes in August. At 7,036 units the Tiago is now 13th largest selling car (up from 15th) in India, even as Tata Motors itself is on the fifth rank ahead of Toyota Kirloskar. Volumes of the premium SUV Hexa also jumped to 1,715 units helped by the fear of price increase.

Interestingly, volumes of the Toyota Innova Crysta slumped 28 percent to 5,963 units though it will be one of the several models which will see its prices go up. Volumes of the Fortuner, however, zoomed 363 percent to 2,116 units during August. Fortuner prices are also set to go up.

Mumbai-based Mahindra & Mahindra, too, saw volumes of its largest-selling model Bolero hitting a higher gear closing August with a growth of 28 percent. The rural workhorse and the urban off-roader Scorpio benefited from the fear of price rise. Both models make up 60 percent of the total monthly volumes of M&M.

Volumes of the KUV100, Mahindra’s experiment in the super compact SUV segment, dipped by 59 percent to 1,074 units last month. M&M has promised to give a slightly makeover to the KUV100 to rejuvenate volumes

Honda fended off competition from Hyundai with regards to the City which saw 30 percent growth in volumes to close at 5,538 units. The all-new Hyundai Verna, which is a direct competitor to the City, saw its volumes close at 4,779 units. Maruti Suzuki Ciaz remained the leader in this segment with sales of 6,457 units

Fiat’s much awaited car, the Jeep Compass saw volumes of 2020 in its first month. The Italian company has already said that it has received bookings for more than 10,000 units for the Compass. At around Rs 15 lakh the premium SUV competes against the Mahindra XUV500 and Tata Motors Hexa.