Indian Car Market Shares 2019 — Hyundai & Mahindra Grow As Maruti Suzuki’s Shares Decline

The Indian auto industry has currently been witnessing a steady decline in sales for quite a while now. This includes all segments such as four-wheelers, two-wheelers, commercial vehicles and others.

Most automotive brands in the country have been witnessing a decline in domestic sales as a result. Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car manufacturer is among the worst hit, recording a decline in sales of up to 17 per cent in the month of June 2019.

Source: Autocar Professional

The declining sales of Maruti Suzuki have adversely affected its market share in the country as well. Maruti Suzuki which commands a majority of the market share in the Indian auto industry is said to have lost out a certain percentage in the first quarter of FY2019-20 (April - June). In this period, market shares of Maruti Suzuki have declined by 1.40 per cent from 52.54% to 51%.

The company managed to sell 3.63 lakh units of vehicles in the first quarter of FY2019; a drop of almost 95,000 units during the same period last year. The sales of even some of their popular models such as the Baleno, Swift, Dzire, Ignis, Ertiga and Wagon R seem to have slowed down considerably in the past few months.

Moving on to the Korean car manufacturer, Hyundai — the second-highest market share holder in the country. Although Hyundai did witness a drop in sales during Q1 of FY2019, its cumulative sales have helped it gain 2 per cent market share in India from 15.75% to 17.70%.

The increase in market share for Hyundai is mainly due to its UV segment, consisting of the Creta and the newly-launched Venue SUVs. The two models in the lineup together brought in over 43,687 units of sales in Q1 2019; a growth of a healthy 38.66 per cent. This helped Hyundai overcome its slump from the hatchback and compact-sedan segments, which put together recorded a decline of around 6 per cent during the same period.

Similar to Hyundai, Indian car manufacturer — Mahindra & Mahindra, is another brand in the country which has managed to improve its market share in these tough times. The Indian brand has recorded a growth in market share from 6.93% to 8.34% in Q1 2019; an improvement of 1.40 per cent.

Again, similar to Hyundai, most of Mahindra's growth has come from the compact-SUV segment offerings. This is mainly due to the success of the recently-launched XUV300 which leads the way in bringing sales for the company.

Another Indian automotive brand which has lost out is Tata Motors. The company failed to record a growth in sales, which has led to a slight drop in their market share as well; by 0.85 per cent in Q1 2019.

Thoughts On The Indian Car Market Share 2019

The Indian automotive industry is witnessing a major slowdown in domestic sales. This trend is expected to carry forward for the upcoming months as well, at least until the festive season. However, with the BS-VI emission norms and the upcoming crash test regulations being mandated soon, it will be interesting to see how brands in India cope with all the changes.