Mar 3, 20172 min read

Indian Car Sales Figures – February 2017

The Union Budget was presented on 1st Feb’17 and again no major announcements were made for the Auto Industry. A lot of expectations were there from the implementation of GST and thus reduction on car prices was awaited. GST stands delayed as of now and no major policy changes meant that the customers who would have delayed their purchase in Jan’17 would finalize it on Feb’17. The result was evident and the Passenger Car sales grew by 5% in Feb’17 v/s Feb’16. The Industry also seems to have recovered from Demonetization effects and the availability of cash in the market is a positive sign. Mar’17 will be a much stronger month as a lot of customers would want to avail depreciation benefits.

A look at the model-wise Sales for Feb’17:

SNAPSHOT:

Apart from Mahindra & Chevrolet, all Passenger OEMs posted a YoY positive growth in Feb’17.
Maruti Suzuki saw a massive 110.5 per cent growth in the UV space, mainly because of the Vitara Brezza. Brezza became the fastest SUV to garner a sales of 1 Lac units. It sold 1,04,146 units within 12 months of its launch!
Celerio is now a Petrol-only model and is performing well. The first Indian car to offer AMT is currently No.10 in Sales Ranking. Alto still facing the heat from Kwid and registered a degrowth of 8% in Feb. Kwid shipments in Feb’17 was 9648 units and was the only Renault in Top 25 selling cars.
Looks like the millennials are not that excited after seeing Ignis’s pricing and the model saw a sales decline in the second month itself (4662 units in Feb’17 v/s 4830 units in Mar’17). Nexa’s other offering Baleno also declined in sales numbers in Feb’17 – The Baleno RS will surely help it gain volumes in Mar’17
Hyundai made a ‘Grand’ entry in Feb’17 with its ‘facelift’ed Grand i10. It outsold Swift in Feb’17!!!
Honda started the shipments of its keenly awaited WRV. This model will define Honda’s volumes in 2017 and a lot is at stake for the Japanese manufacturer. Feb’17 also saw Honda posting a positive YoY growth after a long time! It was possible due to the resurgence of its all time best seller City.
The country’s biggest UV-manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra is facing heat in its home turf. OEMs like Maruti (Brezza, Ertiga), Hyundai (Creta), Renault (Duster, Lodgy), Honda (BRV, Mobilio), Nissan (Terrano), Ford (Ecosport), etc have eaten away M&M’s market share. The best seller for Mahindra is still Bolero; but it stands 3rd in UV sales (after Brezza & Creta).
A lot of hopes were pinned on Tata’s Hexa. However, Feb’17 figures of Hexa was extremely disappointing. It could register a sales of only 1026 units in its second month. Tata’s have invested a lot in this product and any failure now will be detrimental for the OEM. However, Tiago continues its success run and crossed 5k units sales in Feb’17 as well.