As sale of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) continue to speed, hatchbacks, which were once the largest selling cars across companies, have been left far behind. For instance, during April-August, Maruti Suzuki India saw a 12% sales growth over the same period last year, but this growth came exclusively from its utility vehicles (UVs) and SUVs, with sales of hatchbacks and small cars shrinking.
Consider the numbers: During April-August, Maruti’s UV sales grew a whopping 89% year-on-year (from 131,056 units to 247,196 units), but hatchback car sales shrunk 9% (from 452,734 units to 412,577).
Maruti is not alone. The same trend is visible across manufacturers. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), sales of small hatchback cars have decreased 14% in four years, from 294,577 units in FY20 to just 252,409 units in FY23.
Even sale of premium hatchbacks such as Maruti Suzuki Baleno and Swift, Hyundai i20 and Tata Altroz are now under pressure because of the arrival of new sub-4 metre SUVs in the market, which are more or less in a similar price range.
“Last couple of years we’ve seen new sub-4 metre SUVs such as Renault Kiger, Tata Punch, Maruti Suzuki Fronx and now Hyundai Exter enter the market, which are all in the same price range as premium hatchbacks. First-time car buyers are directly moving to these sub-4 metre SUVs, skipping the hatch segment,” said Gaurav Vangaal, associate director, light vehicle forecasting, S&P Global Mobility.
What has added to Maruti Suzuki’s UV sales momentum is the number of models it has launched in this space in just the last 12-18 months. In late FY22, it launched the new Ertiga and XL6. In FY23, it drove in new Brezza and Grand Vitara, followed by the Fronx, Jimny and Invicto in FY24. Its hatchback launches have been occasional – new Celerio and new Baleno in FY22, and new Alto in FY23.
The focus of the carmaker is now clearly on UVs, especially SUVs such as the Brezza, Grand Vitara, Fronx and Jimny. Recently, Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer, marketing & sales, Maruti Suzuki India, told FE that the carmaker wants to double its SUV sales in FY24. “In FY23, we had a 12.6% share in SUVs, but we want to double it to about 25% in FY24,” he said. “Our projections say that 1.9 million SUVs will be sold in FY24, and we are aiming for total SUV sales a little shy of half-a-million units in FY24. With four SUVs in our portfolio, we are in a position to get to that.”
