Renault–Nissan is emerging the most popular player in the mini car space — engine capacity of 800-1,000 cc — with the stylised mini Kwid a hit, reports Malyaban Ghosh in Mumbai. This is partly the result of both Maruti and Hyundai focusing on larger cars; last year volumes for the Alto, the country’s largest selling car stayed flat with sales in March dropping 11.46%. Hyundai, which drove into the sub-1000 cc segment with Eon some four years back has also not seen too much success — sales fell 13% in FY16 and 10% in March. Maruti and Hyundai prefer bigger vehicles which fetch them better realisations — in the January-March quarter, Maruti’s realisations per unit rose 8.1% year-on-year to Rs 4.24 lakh units.
Meanwhile, the Kwid which was launched in October, 2015, had notched up sales of 41,000 till March with an average monthly run rate of 7,000-8000 units. Buoyed by the success of the Kwid, Datsun plans to roll out a car in the mini segment — Redi-Go — likely to be priced between Rs 2.5-3.5 lakh.
