INDIA SALES: Top 5 Utility Vehicles in July 2016

With passenger vehicle sales in July 2016 bouncing back and recording their best performance in this calendar year, it was the UVs which led from the front with a staggering year-on-year growth of over 41% in July 2016.

By Shourya Harwani

22 Aug 2016

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INDIA SALES: Top 5 Utility Vehicles in July 2016

A clear indicator of the standout success of the new model launches, UV sales in July stood at 64,105 units, marking yet another month of consecutive sales growth. Rising demand has brewed stiff competition in the segment and Maruti Suzuki India’s first ever sub-four-metre compact SUV, the Vitara Brezza has emerged as the country’s most sold UV during the month.

For its maiden perch at the top of the most sold UV list, the Vitara Brezza edged past its Hyundai rival Creta and the new Toyota Innova Crysta. The Vitara Brezza went home to 10,232 new buyers in July, the highest ever sales of the model since launch in March this year.

The much-in-demand compact SUV has been acting as a buffer to slowing sales of the Alto, Wagon-R and Swift hatchbacks. The model currently commands a waiting period of over 6 months and with strong demand, it is likely to feature in the top 5 list going forward as well.

Hyundai’s Creta edged past the Innova Crysta to capture the second spot for the second straight month. The urban SUV, which celebrated its first anniversary last month, sold 7,981 units in July. Hyundai’s first dig at the segment has proved to be immensely successful with its UV market share in April-June 2016 rising to 12.9% from a mere 1.9% a year ago.

To mark its first year anniversary, Hyundai launched a special edition of the Creta at Rs 12.24 lakh for the petrol and Rs 13.76 lakh for the diesel variant (ex-showroom, Delhi). Based on the SX+ trim, the Creta Anniversary Edition remains mechanically unchanged and comes with the option of a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and a 1.6-litre four-cylinder diesel engine, both mated to a six-speed manual gearbox.

The Toyota Innova, in its latest Crysta avatar, slipped a couple of places and secured the third spot with sales of 7,765 units in July. The Crysta was the most sold UV in India for two consecutive months previously.

The company has now also launched the petrol variant of the Crysta, which is bound to provide incremental volumes in the coming months, especially from Delhi-NCR, which has traditionally been the largest SUV market in India. Additionally, with the ban on diesel vehicles above 2,000cc in Delhi-NCR also being lifted now, the carmaker is likely to benefit significantly in the coming months.

The engine powering the India-spec Innova Crysta petrol is a 2.7-litre, four-cylinder unit that develops 166hp of power and 245nm of torque. The 2.7-litre unit is the same engine that powered the previous-generation Innova petrol in some international markets like the Middle East. However, for the Innova Crysta, the motor has been upgraded with Dual-VVTi and is slightly more powerful compared to the earlier output of 158hp.

Toyota used to offer a petrol variant on the previous-generation Innova as well; however, due to tepid sales the variant was discontinued. Nevertheless, with the current shift towards petrol engines in India happening faster than ever, Toyota could benefit from its new strategy.

A surprise entrant at the fourth place this month is the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, with sales of 6,625 units. The second MPV to make it on the list after the Innova, the Ertiga recently crossed the 275,000 units sales milestone in India as well.

Until July 2016, Maruti has sold a total of 278,964 units of the Ertiga at an average of nearly 5,500 units a month. While these figures are not extraordinary when compared to the carmaker’s other hot-selling models, the feat is impressive nevertheless given the fact that the changing preferences of Indian buyers towards more feature-laden SUVs and crossovers along with the explosion of the compact SUV segment has pressurised volumes in the MPV segment.

With another good performance Ford India’s EcoSport came in at the last spot thanks to resurgent demand for the compact SUV. It extended its good run for the second consecutive month as the American carmaker’s revamped marketing initiatives and pricing for the vehicle seem to have yielded positive results. The carmaker despatched a total of 4,885 units of the EcoSport in July.

The UV market is on the upswing and there’s little that could stop surging sales. In the April-July 2016 period, the segment has sold a total of 240,893 units to notch year-on-year growth of 39% and seems well on its way to cross the highest ever fiscal sales of 586,664 in 2015-16.

With the diesel ban in Delhi-NCR on SUVs and luxury vehicles now lifted by the Supreme Court, the UV segment should see substantial gains in the coming months. Sales are likely to get a significant boost on the back of pent-up demand from the region. Additionally with full benefits of the Seventh Pay Commission and the start of the festive season also coming in, August could see a further upswing in the already booming segment. Stay tuned to Autocar Professional for further updates on the sales front.

- Top 10 Passenger Vehicles in July 2016

- Top 5 Utility Vehicles in June 2016

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