SUVs lifted auto sales in pandemic-ridden 2020

NEW DELHI: The year 2020 was a roller coaster ride for the Indian auto industry. In the first half of the year, the market witnessed a historic low and a temporary halt in production. The second half of 2020 saw a completely different face of the auto industry altogether.
Under Rs 5 lakh market, which is carried forward by a clutch of Maruti Suzuki hatchbacks, Renault Kwid and Hyundai Grand i10 Nios, saw the robust increment as always. The interesting trend was in the SUV market. As the economy reopened, it was the SUV segment leading the front and delivering good sales figures. New faces along with new popular ones from 2020 were chartbusters.

The big hits of 2020
Hyundai and Kia were frontrunners with the highest-ever SUV sales across segments, clocking 1.80 lakh and 1.35 lakh units in the calendar year. The second-gen Hyundai Creta, which was launched in Q1, was the most-sold SUV in the market with 96,989 units. Creta was followed by Kia Seltos with 96,932 units. Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza and Hyundai Venue compete neck-and-neck for the third position with 83,846 units and 82,428 units respectively.

Tarun Garg, Director, Sales, Marketing and Service, said, “Hyundai has emerged as one of the most preferred brands for SUVs in the country with Creta and Venue leading sales charts. Since their launch, both these brands have gone on to become household names, captivating the imagination of buyers. In CY 2020 Hyundai topped SUV sales charts with 180,237 units.”
Festivities killed anxiety and SUVs ruled the market
October 2020 was a good month for the auto industry and it also marked the beginning of the festive season. SUVs were the flavour of the season and the Compact SUV segment became the highest growing segment in October with a Y-o-Y growth of 60%. While the credit goes to strong volumes delivered by Maruti Suzuki Brezza, Kia Sonet, and Hyundai Venue, the fact the pent-up demand was showing up and the Indian consumers were keeping their investments liquid has to be acknowledged too.

“Currently, our focus is on meeting the increasing demand for Sonet followed by Seltos and Carnival. Our product strategy is based on what will be relevant to India in the coming years and our focus is to thoroughly study and analyze the sentiments in the post-COVID-19 world to plan for the future,” said Tae-Jin Park, Executive Director & Chief Sales Officer – Kia Motors India.
With the SUV segment leading the pack, the automobile industry registered a 29.32% growth in November 2020, which included the second half of the festive season, the Diwali-Dhanteras period. From 14,13,549 units sold in October, the FADA (Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations) data showed that 18,27,990 units had been sold in November.