The Utility Vehicle (UV) segment continued its strong momentum in 2016 with yet another month of double-digit growth in October. Offsetting the flat and negative sales of passenger cars and vans respectively, UVs saw a 21.37% rise in year-on-year (YoY) sales to 70,544 units in the reported month.

Maruti Suzuki India’s Vitara Brezza continued to lead the domestic UV charts for the fourth consecutive month with sales of 10,056 units in October 2016. The current waiting period for the Bezza is a uniform 6 months across variants. Earlier the top-end ZDi and ZDi+ trims, which are very popular with buyers, had a waiting period of close to 9 months. The reduction in the waiting period is due to Maruti Suzuki ramping up capacity to 9,000-10,000 units per month for the Vitara Brezza at the Gurgaon plant and to 11,000-12,000 units a month for the premium Baleno hatchback at Manesar.

Hyundai Motor India’s third most sold vehicle, the Creta had to continue settling for the second spot with sales of 8,670 units.

Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra emerged as the biggest winner in October as its old workhorse Bolero leaped to the third spot from the fifth in the previous month. The country’s largest UV-maker sold 8,323 units of the Bolero. The recently launched Power Plus version also helped push the sales of the ageing UV.

Toyota’s Innova Crysta sales slightly went down in October with a total of 6,294 units sold. However, the premium MPV has been a big contributor to Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s (TKM) overall domestic sales. Highlighting the Innova’s sales N Raja, director and senior VP (Sales & Marketing) of TKM, said: “Sale in the festive months of September and October put together has helped us clear most of our inventory in the plant as well as at our dealerships. We have seen a huge pull from the market in the last two months, especially for the Innova Crysta which has been doing phenomenally well ever since its launch in May 2016. The Innova Crysta has registered 45% growth from May to October 2016 when compared to sales in the same period last year. The Crysta still has a waiting period of a month in certain parts of the country and we are trying our best to bring this further down.” 

Also read: Top 10 Passenger Vehicles in October 2016

The Maruti Ertiga occupied the final spot on the list with sales of 5,660 units. Maruti has crafted its own niche in the MPV segment with the Ertiga and has managed to crack the segment with robust demand from both private and fleet owners alike.

UVs are likely to continue driving PV sales in the coming months with recent launches expected to see strong demand for some more time to come. The launch of the new Hyundai Tucson, Toyota Fortuner and the upcoming launches of Tata Hexa and Mahindra’s Innova-rivalling SUV (codename: U321) next year is sure to heat up the segment.

Related:

- Top 5 Utility Vehicles in September 2016

- Top 10 Two-wheelers in October 2016

- Top 10 Motorcycles in October 2016

- Top 10 Scooters in October 2016

- India Sales Analysis October 2016