Maruti cars dominate top-five sales list in India for fourth consecutive year

Maruti Suzuki has a solid grip in the passenger vehicle segment in the country with all the top-five selling cars in FY 2020-21 coming from its garage. While Swift has been the undisputed leader of the pack, almost sealing the metaphorical crown on metaphorical head, the likes of Baleno, WagonR, Alto and Dzire complete a power-packed team at the top.

Maruti sold 1.72 lakh units of Swift in FY 2020-21 and followed it up by launching the updated version of the hatchback earlier this year. The only other car it has had to compete with in the past is younger sibling Alto which took the fourth spot with 1.59 lakh units sold.

Baleno, sold under the Nexa brand, has managed to increase its popularity and while it has had to contend with newer or updated rivals in recent times, still fared extremely strong in the market. 1.63 lakh units of the car were sold in FY 2020-21.

WagonR is the next topper in the list and while there have been concerns that it is rather dated, the car still finds favour among a vast number of car buyers in the country. At 1.60 lakh units sold, it was only a shade behind Baleno.

Completing the top-five in the Indian passenger vehicles' sales chart is the Dzire. At one point, the Dzire even secured the top place but considering that it has received no major change or update in recent years, its achievement of holding on to the fifth place is even more commendable.

At a time when SUVs are ruling Indian roads, Maruti's top five performers in the Indian automobile market show that smaller cars are still overwhelmingly preferred by the masses. In fact, these five cars alone accounted for nearly 30% of all PV sales in the country in FY 2020-21.

A number of factors may continue to work for Maruti Suzuki in India. That it has a pan-India presence in terms of sales and service centers, its move to be more premium courtesy the Nexa brand, a solid resale value and the recent impetus for personal mobility - Maruti has managed to maintain a firm hand. Evolving in Covid-19-times may have also contributed. "We strengthened our digital presence to cater to changing needs of the new tech-savvy customers. We along with our partners and stakeholders focused on re-building customer confidence. Initiatives like Smart finance and Subscribe helped bring positivity to the market," explained Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India. "These efforts have helped us especially in the extraordinary times of the pandemic to build customer confidence."