There is a feeling in the country’s car market that mini cars fitted with 800 cc engines are no longer the favourite of the Indian consumers and cars in the compact category (generally known as “B” category) are becoming the choice of the first car buyers.
The data available with Deccan Herald corroborates the fact that finally the compact car segment has taken over the mini (800cc) segment as the first choice for entry-level cars.
According to model-wise sales data for 2004-05 four compact cars: Maruti’s Wagon R & Zen, Hyundai’s Santro and Tata Motors’ Indica together sold 353,973 cars accounting for 43 per cent of industry’s sales of 819,918.
The mini category, on the other hand, sold 242,485 cars coming from Maruti’s two models M800 and Alto, accounting for 30 per cent of the market.
Though this graduation from Mini to Compact has taken many more years in India, it is a natural phenomenon when the car market evolves and matures with economic prosperity.
Despite this, interestingly, the largest selling individual models are still Minis as Maruti sold 126,223 Altos and 116,262 M800s. In the compact category Tata Motors took the lead in 2004-05 by selling 105,615 cars, followed by Hyundai’s Santro (103,301), Maruti’s Wagon R (79,712) and Zen (65,345). (See Table)
In the next category, Tata Motors’ Indigo has become a big hit as it sold 39,319 cars followed by Honda Siel’s City, Ford’s Ikon, Hyundai’s Accent and Maruti’s Esteem.
INDIAN CAR MARKET IN FY ’05
Company Major Models Sales (Numbers) 2004-05
Maruti M 800 116, 262
Maruti Omni 60, 377
Maruti Zen 65, 345
Maruti Wagon-R 79, 712
Maruti Alto 126, 223
Maruti Esteem 21, 849
Tata Motor Indica 105, 615
Tata Motor Indigo 39, 319
Hyundai Santro 103, 301
Hyundai Accent 22, 917
Ford India Ikon 23, 644
General Motors Optra 8, 547
Honda Siel City 32, 767
Toyota Corolla 9, 942
Total for the industry 819, 918
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005
