Maruti maintains pole position in PV sales in FY20, Tata Motors drops by 43%

Experts maintain that the key reason for Maruti to have performed well in spite of industry headwinds was their ability to foresee the evolving market and transitioning to an all petrol portfolio as well as their spread of dealerships and service centres.

The country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki maintained its numero uno position in passenger vehicle sales for financial year 2019-20., albeit a drop in sales. Mahindra & Mahindra retained its third spot behind Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motors, with Tata Motors registering the highest drop in PV sales during the same period.

With economic conditions and sentiments affecting the automotive industry, the top four PV players had a drop in sales during FY20. While market leader Maruti had a drop of 17% in its sales, Tata Motors had a staggering fall of 43% during the same period.

Maruti Suzuki sold 14,36,124 units of its passenger vehicles in FY20 compared to 17,29,826 units during FY19 while Hyundai continued to be at the number 2 position with 4,85,309 units in FY20 largely driven by the sales of its SUV sales. Maruti’s growth in FY20 came on the back of its Baleno & Brezza models even though its Ciaz and Alto sales were subdued.

“We maintained our market share of 51% which is extremely high and during the last quarter, our market share was actually 52%+. In addition, we gained a lot in the passenger cars and vans segment”, said Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Marketing, Maruti Suzuki. Srivastava added that while market share fell in the first two quarters of FY20 on expected lines, it bounced back during the next two quarters, driven primarily by the BS6 transition and the customer friendly finance schemes.

Experts maintain that the key reason for Maruti to have performed well in spite of industry headwinds was their ability to foresee the evolving market and transitioning to an all petrol portfolio as well as their spread of dealerships and service centres.

Utility vehicle major, Mahindra & Mahindra retained its third spot, increasing the gap with Tata Motors. Mahindra sold 1,86,978 units in FY20 as compared to 1,31,197 units for Tata Motors during the same period. While some of its products like Marazzo and Alturas have not set the cash registers ringing, it's the company's power brands namely the Bolero, Scorpio and the XUV500 that have helped garner sales and consolidate its third position.

Its only new launch success has been the compact SUV, XUV300 which is based on Ssangyong’s Tivoli platform. A predominantly diesel portfolio has also helped Mahindra with nearly 6 out of 10 SUVs being diesel driven. However going forward the company expects to work on a larger gasoline portfolio in keeping with market requirements.

Tata Motors has ambitious plans to launch more than a dozen models over the next 4 years, but is in desperate need of a winner as of yesterday.

New kids on the block, MG Hector and Kia Seltos have started making an immediate impression through the launch of successful products. Analysts feel that in a shrunken market, new players are garnering units and resultant market share at the expense of existing players.

What would be interesting is how FY21 would play out given the pandemic resulting in extremely low sales and the industry having transaction to BS6 graded products. The petrol diesel divide will also see a shrink with traditional diesel companies like Mahindra upping its play in gasoline versions with the XUV300 being a clear indicator, experts said.