Hyundai i20 and XCent are highest gainers in March 2015

While the last two years have not been kind to the automobile industry, March 2015 has seen some respectable surge in car sales with some manufacturers posting handsome figures to boost the overall industry. Around 25.5 lakh vehicles have been sold in the FY 2014-15. New launches like Hyundai i20 Elite, New Honda City and Maruti Ciaz have been the catalysts in driving sales.

In the passenger car segment, Alto continued to be the highest selling car, followed by Swift siblings. Maruti, Hyundai, Honda and Mahindra continue to be amongst the top sellers.

The surprise was the incredible performance by i20 Elite with a growth of almost 200% over March ’14 and also Xcent with an increase of 162% for the same month. The growth is also phenomenal for Toyota, with Liva, Innova and Fortuner posting over 50% increase over March ’14. Honda City continued to be the leader amongst the sedans, followed by Maruti Ciaz. In fact Honda City posted a higher number than even the Amaze in March’15, which could be due to year ending reasons. However, the City has sold 100000 cars within 15 months, making it the fastest to reach this mark. Volkswagen has shown lukewarm growth with the Polo facelift. The Zest and Bolt from Tata motors helped it post a 19% growth over last year, though the numbers of Bolt have been falling sharply for the last few months. Nissan Motor Co registered a growth of 24% , the Terrano and Go plus being the drivers here.

Top ten gains

There are also some manufacturers who couldn’t sustain their sail and have showed considerable drops. Renault had three of its models Fluence, Koleos and Scala among the ones who lost the most over Mar ’14. While sales of Datsun Go have fallen, Go plus seems to be steadying. Customers seem to prefer more utility offered in GO plus. Fiat Linea also stands among the top losers with an almost 80% drop, clearly suggesting that recent cosmetic facelift has not been accepted well and buyers look for better performance (Diesel) in its segment. A facelift for Mahindra Quanto is expected sometime soon, so expect better numbers there.

Top ten losers:

A trend also shows a fall in numbers for premium sedans overall. Customers prefer shifting to SUVs in that segment or even moving higher up to entry level luxury cars.

The coming year is expected to be better, through the growth will be slow. Primary drivers could be settling down fuel prices and lower interest rates, also, many new launches that are awaited in the coming year.

Read our review of the Hyundai i20 Active.