Change is in the air and it is showing in the India vehicle sales charts. As per SIAM’s vehicle sales data released for June 2014, the passenger vehicles segment posted a growth of 11.23 percent to 218,828 units. Sales growth in Q1 2014-15 (April-June 2014) was 1.30 percent (615,322 units).

Within this segment, passenger cars have recorded a 14.76 percent rise in sales to 160,232 units in June and a 2.24 percent increase in Q1 to 444,242 units. What the data also reveals is that Maruti Suzuki India has in Q1 2014-15, with sales of 226,545 units, increased its market share to 51 percent from 47.88 percent a year ago. Hyundai Motors India, which sold 104,323 cars in the first three months of the current fiscal, similarly, has expanded its market share to 23.48 percent from 21.86 percent a year ago. Honda Cars India is also another market share gainer with a rise to 9.12 percent with sales of 40,516 cars. Q1 2-14-15 has seen GM India, Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Volkswagen India post a decline in their market shares compared to a year ago.

The big story though is in the Utility Vehicle segment, which grew 6.90 percent in June (43,849 units) and 3.93 percent in April-June 2014 (128,796 units). The newsmaker here is Ford India which, with sales of 13,271 units, has notched up a 6.94 percentage point gain in Q1, expanding its UV market share to 10.30 percent, and helping its share in the overall passenger vehicle market grow from 2.49 percent to 3.24 percent in Q1 2014-15. Clearly, the popular EcoSport SUV is the driving force for the company.

All the other UV players have seen flat sales or a decline in their market shares. Renault India, with sales of 10,347 units, sees its share down from 12.14 percent a year ago to 8.03 percent now. And Mahindra & Mahindra, which sold 52,180 units in Q1 FY2015, sees its market share drop by 5.46 percentage points to 40.51 percent. Both these OEMs have lined up new launches to ramp up sales volumes in the market.