The sales data for the month of January 2021 is out and the results are very much expected in terms of favourite cars and SUVs. What was not expected, however, is the fact that our Indian automotive industry has recovered quicker than what most people expected. The YoY growth of the industry is around 15% which is particularly impressive because January of last year was a normal month. Normal in terms of the covid free situation in India at that time. This means that the growth has seen an exponential jump in the post-covid era. The top-10 highest-selling cars in India include 7 cars from Maruti Suzuki and 3 cars from Hyundai. What is interesting in this statistic is that the top-selling cars from Hyundai include 2 SUVs. Let us take a look in detail where the industry is headed and is there anyone who can challenge the leadership of Hyundai SUVs.
Also read: Hyundai witnesses over 23% growth in January 2021 – Price hike!
Hyundai Creta and Venue
The most popular segment in the country is the SUV segment. Be it the compact or mid-size SUV segment. People have really taken a liking to the bigger cars because of the road presence and practicality that they offer. As a matter of fact, this trend is not just limited to India, but customers around the globe are preferring to go for SUVs over sedans. Creta is officially the highest-selling SUV in the country for a long time now and Venue is not far behind. In January 2021, Hyundai sold 12,284 units of the Creta as compared to 6,900 in the same month last year. This is already a jump of a massive over 78%. Similarly, Hyundai managed to sell over 11,700 units of the Venue in comparison to over 6,700 units in January 2020. This signifies an over 75% growth rate on a YoY basis. This clearly shows the success and popularity of these two products from Hyundai. The demand for these two products is going strong even today and looks to continue even in the times to come.
Also read: Car sales report for January 2021 – Winners and Losers!
Competition
The compact SUV segment has a lot of rivals of Venue, for example, Tata Nexon, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Kia Sonet, Mahindra XUV300. The competition is becoming tougher and tougher day by day because of new players entering this space. This includes, recently launched Nissan Magnite and Renault Kiger. Both of these offer a ton of features at a very competitive price point, undercutting almost all the rivals. This can prove to be extremely challenging for all these players who are being so competitive. One thing is for sure though that the customers do stand to benefit from this a lot.
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However, if we talk about the mid-size SUV segment, there are not too many direct rivals. But because of the price point cross-segments competitors do arise which might offer more practicality in some instances. Some of the rivals include Kia Seltos, Tata Harrier, MG Hector, upcoming Mahindra XUV500. The upcoming direct rivals from the Skoda Auto Volkswagen Group will surely challenge the leadership position of Creta because they will be more in line with the characteristics of the segment. VW Taigun and Skoda Kushaq are almost ready to be launched very soon now and with a ton of localization in both these products, prices could be very competitive. Whether customers opt for quality and driver-oriented products from Skoda and VW or will they stick to their feature-rich offering from the Korean carmakers remains to be seen.
