Getting vehicle inventory levels right and achieving an optimised demand-supply equation is a skill that most automakers seek. Tata Motors seems to be achieving that. Proof of this is the Tata Nexon, currently India’s best-selling SUV which also took the SUV crown in FY2022 from India’s No. 2 passenger vehicle company. The game-changing Nexon has notched its latest sales milestone: 400,000 units in the domestic market. 

As per Autocar Professional’s industry data analytics, till end-September 2022, the Nexon had clocked cumulative sales of 399,898 units – just 102 units shy of the 400,000 mark. This new milestone would have been notched on October 1 itself, given the surging demand for this compact SUV.

It is to be noted that on September 21, 2022, Tata Motors rolled out its 400,000th Nexon from the Ranjangaon plant in Pune, exactly five years to the day the game-changing model was launched on September 21, 2017.

Tata Motors’ high-on-style compact SUV that’s big on content too and sold in petrol, diesel and electric avatars has scored big in India's competitive SUV market.

Max reach: Over 51 variants across petrol, diesel, electric
The success of the Nexon can be attributed to a well-thought-out market strategy designed to have maximum reach across fuels and price-points. Sold in as many as 51 variants – 21 petrol, 21 diesel and 9 electric – with automatic and manual transmission options, the Tata Nexon’s pricing is aimed at scoring high with consumers.

While the Nexon Petrol’s price bracket is Rs 759,000 (XE / manual) to Rs 12.77 lakh (XZA+P Jet /AMT), the Nexon Diesel opens at Rs 989,000 (XM / manual) and closes at Rs 14.07 lakh (XZA+P Jet AT). The Nexon EV Prime’s price range is between Rs 14.99 lakh and Rs 17.50 lakh.

A close look at the Nexon’s sales table (below), which covers five fiscals and the first six months of FY2023, reveals just how sustained as well as robust  demand is for the compact SUV. The pace of sales is remarkable. Considering that cumulative sales of the Nexon raced past the 200,000-unit sales milestone in India in June 2021, a little less than four years or 46 months to be precise, the next 200,000 units have been sold in just 15 months. Do the math – that works out to average monthly sales of 13,333 units.

While the first 200,000 sales took 46 months, the next 200,000 took just 15 months.

Making the con-Nexon with the consumer
After a modest 27,547 units in the last seven months of FY2018, sales grew 100% YoY to 55,008 in FY2019. FY2020, which is when the pandemic struck India and the world, saw numbers decline to 43,260 but they perked up again to 63,756 in FY2021. Demand then zoomed 95% YoY to 124,130 units in FY2022 – the Nexon contributed 33% to Tata Motors’ record FY2022 overall sales of 373,138 units, which also catapulted it into India’s No. 3 carmaker, after Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai.

The SUV continues in the same vein in the ongoing fiscal – between April-September 2022, it has sold 86,197 units – which is already 69% of FY2022’s record sales, with six months left for FY2023 to close.

The high-on-style, big-on-content Nexon has recently received a facelift – the interiors are better, space and comfort levels remain good and the SUV impresses with its ride and handling. While the 1.5-litre diesel engine is better than the 1.2-litre turbo-petrol unit, the Nexon EV has carved a niche of its own and is India’s best-selling EV.

In May 2022, Tata rolled out the Nexon EV Max  with a claimed 40% higher range of 437km on a single charge, as certified by ARAI, under test conditions. The Nexon EV, which continues to sell alongside this long-range model, claims 312km from its 33% smaller 30.2kWh Li-ion battery pack, compared to the 40.5kWh unit on the Max. In an EV market, where it has had no direct rivals until the all-electric Mahindra XUV400 with 456km range was launched in early September, the Nexon has had an electrifying run.

Also, what has helped the Nexon’s speedy growth is that it was the first made-in-India car to score a full 5-star Global NCAP crash test rating in December 2018. A good GNCAP crash rating is also a market advantage the world over. A top-draw, five-star score is a strong sales draw as increasingly safety-conscious car buyers in India opt to put their money on a model that walks the talk on the safety front. The Tata Nexon and its surging sales are proof of that. 

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