Four of the best-selling cars in India are currently a hatchback but with the definition of SUVs changing significantly in recent years the availability of the body’s body SUV has grown in the price segment.
Today, people can get a Suvash vehicle under the RS 10 Lakh.
This is a common fact that hatchbacks are traditionally become the largest sales segment in the country along with sedans.
However, with the SUV growing at a fast speed, it is clear that this growth must come with other segment costs.
To find out the dynamics of the actual vehicle sales in this country we talked to Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Limited.
Kicking a conversation, Srivastava said that the SUV grew at a healthy speed and that about five years ago they contributed about 15% of total sales.
Fast forward to present and at FY 20-21 SUVs grow to 32% of the market and 38% at CY 2021.
At CAGR that impresses more than 13% SUVs grow faster than other segments in India for the past few years, it added.
That said, this growth has not arrived at a hatchback fee because Srivastava told us that their market share has been consistent since FY 2014-15.
In that year, hatchbacks accounted for around 47% of the market and in FY 20-21 their shares remained almost unchanged at 46.3%.
Speaking of growth, Srivastava acknowledged that the segment could not grow but had adhered to the share of pai regardless of the SUV earthquake because 50% of customers became the first buyers and about 60% of them preferred a hatchback.
In the hatchback room even though there is the same split between entry-levels and premium hatchbacks.
Interestingly, this split has been consistent since 2010-11 when the premium hatchback contributed half of the segment.
He added that in the future, higher potential can be seen in the car segment such as Baleno as customers now demand more features in their first car.
With a growing SUV segment and rock-stable hatchback focus on the discussion shifted to the sedan and this is where Srivastava highlights the main decline that has occurred.
From rule 24% of the market in 2014-15, sedans now shrink to the shade below 9.5%, translate into a large decline.
Speaking of future trends, Srivastava said that the SUV would continue to grow until it reached around 45% of the market share, which was the place we saw them.
Responding to the future of Hatchback, he said that while the segment is expected to be able to enjoy strong consumer demand, tightening regulations can increase the costs of these cars in disproportionate.
This in turn can cause contraction segments in the long term as the buyer is first more sensitive to the price of purchasing vehicles.
Srivastava concluded a conversation by saying that Maruti Suzuki bet strongly on a hatchback segment because it was still the largest in this country and will continue to hold the leading place for some time.
He said that the receipt for New Celerio was positive when the company registered 8,000+ retail delivery for this new model in the first full sales month in December 2021.
Instead, the sale of the previous Celerio was around 8,000 units per month the life cycle.
Someone must consider that the current model does not have a CNG variant, which will be launched this month and will increase the numbers, it was revealed.