Sales Analysis H1 FY 2017-18

The financial year 2017-18 has been tumultuous, given the GST legislation and the continued changes in its slabs and rates. The overall market sentiment was bearish and, with the GDP taking a hit, the future of car sales seemed bleak. Now that we have the half yearly numbers, we find that passenger vehicle sales have increased by 9 per cent over the previous year.

The charge has been led by none other than Maruti Suzuki, consolidating its position as the market leader with 50.5 per cent of the overall sales from its stable. Maruti sold 8,22,474 cars from April to October 2017 while the overall sales of passenger cars in the same period were 16,29,568. At the half-year mark, we have already crossed 1.63 million cars as against the 1.49 million cars sold in the previous financial year.

Now Maruti Suzuki has ridden on the success of the Maruti Suzuki Dzire, the fastest car to hit the one lakh mark in sales. Hyundai, on the other hand, has gone from strength to strength with the new Grand i10 and the Creta. The i20 has been performing consistently and its facelift (which we expect to debut at the Auto Expo 2018) will surely help Hyundai consolidate its position as number two along with the all-new Verna.

Mahindra, Tata and Honda have been circling around the third, fourth and fifth positions, with the SUV-maker getting the better of the others more often than not. For Mahindra, the Scorpio and the Bolero have been the cash cows along with its star performer, the XUV500. The KUV100, which was supposed to revolutionise the budget segment has not been able to make any impressions which might be because of its odd proportions and even odder engineering.

Tata’s new launches this year have received a lukewarm response. The Hexa is doing decently well looking at its segment volumes raking in over 1,000 units consistently. The Tiago-based Tigor, which was slated to be the disruptor in the compact sedan segment, might have suffered due to its pricing strategy, especially with the all-new versions of the Hyundai Xcent and the Maruti Suzuki Dzire coming in soon after. The Nexon is pretty new to the scene and we can only judge its performance once it has had some time to settle into a consistent selling pattern.

Down the line, Ford has all its hopes pinned on the new Ecosport which seems to have got its mojo back, thus making it better than all the compact SUVs that exist right now. Renault has the Kwid going for it, but the Duster is flailing and the Captur is yet to capture the buyers.

Now that the GDP is back on its growth track and after a good monsoon, we can expect the bullish trend to make a comeback. If that happens, then the annual growth is likely to scale into double digits, debunking the general hullabaloo surrounding the success of the GST reforms.