In a historic shift, Mahindra & Mahindra has unseated Hyundai India to become the country’s second-largest carmaker, ending the latter’s reign that lasted for a quarter of a century.
Rise of Mahindra: A strategic shift
The January-July 2025 sales data analysed by FE shows that the Indian carmaker has gained a healthy lead of 21,283 units over the Korean. Mahindra has sold 351,065 units this year, more than Hyundai’s 329,782 units —and with a strong product pipeline planned, this lead is only expected to widen.
During the same period last year, Mahindra (with sales of 291,971 units), significantly trailed Hyundai (358,785 units), but this year, while Mahindra grew 20.2% (from 291,971 units to 351,065 units), sales of Hyundai dropped 8.1% (from 358,785 units to 329,782 units).
Hyundai’s stagnation and future outlook
Automotive analysts attributed Hyundai’s slowdown to product fatigue and overreliance on the Creta, and Mahindra’s success to the growing demand for its ICE models (XUV 3XO, Thar and Thar Roxx, Scorpio and Scorpio-N), and its new EVs (BE 6 and XEV 9e).
“In FY25, according to data shared by the Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM), sales of Creta grew 20% (from 162,773 units in FY24 to 194,871 units in FY25), but sales of all other Hyundai models combined (i10 Nios, i20, Aura, Exter, Venue, Verna, Alcazar, Tucson, and Ioniq 5) dropped 10%— from 451,948 units to 403,795 units,” an analyst said, adding: “The launch of the all-new Venue in October is expected to give a push to sales, but it seems highly unlikely that Hyundai will be able to catch up with Mahindra in 2025.”
Mahindra, on the other hand, is riding high on the success of both its ICE and EV models, and has at least two new car launches planned in the next few months, which will give its sales a further boost.
As far as monthly sales of 2025 are concerned, Mahindra has beaten Hyundai for five months—February, April, May, June, and July.
At the top this year till now is Maruti Suzuki, despite its sales dropping 1.9%—from 1,036,368 units to 1,016,481 units—and Tata Motors is at the fourth position behind Hyundai.
Back in 1998-99, Hyundai entered India with Santro, and by 2000 it had beaten Tata Motors (riding high on Indica) to become India’s second-largest carmaker after Maruti Suzuki. This marked the beginning of Hyundai’s long reign as the number two carmaker in India, a position it held until 2024, and is all but ready to lose to Mahindra in 2025.