Maruti Baleno to Hyundai Grand i10, top 10 car brands in India get stronger

When it comes to popular cars, Indian consumers are sticking to pretty much the same models this year as they did last year. The top 10 car models in terms of volumes so far this fiscal are the same ones as they were in the same period last financial year; perhaps indicating that these top car brand in the domestic market continue to get stronger and gain market share.

As expected, India's largest passenger car player Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) has the most number of models in the top 10 - at seven, followed by two models from Hyundai Motor India and one from Renault.

Data collected from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) shows that Maruti's bellwether car for years now stays strong in the No. 1 spot. Its sales rather grew an impressive 16.7 per cent between April to August 2017 over the same period last year on a high base of 92,970 units. The Alto brand launched in 2000 has crossed over 100,000 units in sales so far this year and continues to engage the customer.

Maruti's Baleno too has shown impressive growth, clocking almost 75 per cent year on year growth to 77,559 units this fiscal. Baleno sales were limited by capacity constraints which have eased out considerably after Suzuki Motors Gujarat's Mandal plant came onstream in February-March this year. In the third spot came in another popular MSIL brand Swift growing by 20 per cent.

Maruti posted robust sales figures of 152,000 units in passenger vehicles (PVs) in August, taking its market share to 50.87 per cent.

Hyundai's hatchback Grand i10 and the premium hatch Elite i20 have grown by 3.5 per cent and 11 per cent respectively year on year. Both the models have slipped a few spots though.

The Renault Kwid sales have faltered this year, dropping 21 per cent. It is the only car in the top 10 brands that has seen sales slip, but it still made it to the Top 10. Its ranking, however, slipped from the seventh spot in FY17 to 10th spot in FY18.
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