While the Indian auto sector is gripped in sales slowdown, Maruti Vitara Brezza-rivalling Hyundai Venue and Hyundai Creta-rivalling Kia Seltos have been making new sales records
The Indian auto sector has been gripped by a sales slump for over 11 consecutive months now. The situation has been so bad that even some of the most popular carmakers, including the likes of Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor India Ltd, have experienced a considerable de-growth over the last few months.
However, the slowdown hasn’t kept carmakers from launching new products and some of these models have actually raked in pretty impressive sales numbers in the past few months. The case in the point here are Kia Seltos and Hyundai Venue, with both the SUVs clocking many bookings. Moreover, a large chunk of orders has already been completed, which clearly shows that in spite of all the noise over the prolonged slowdown, these SUVs have defied the challenging market conditions.
Last month, the Kia Seltos sold 7,754 units, which led to a 24 per cent MoM growth over 6,236 units sold in August 2019. To put things in perspective, Hyundai Creta, the erstwhile segment-leader, could find only 6,641 buyers, thereby marking a whopping 40 per cent drop from 11,000 units sold in September 2018.
Even if you look at the Baojun 530-based MG Hector, which has made a lot of noise over its high demand and huge waiting period, the Chinese-origin SUV has found only 2,608 customers last month. The Kia Seltos, on the other hand, has been a runaway success and has already garnered 75,000 bookings in the short span it has been available in the market. Out of this, over 50,000 deliveries have already been completed.
The Hyundai Venue, which sells in a lower segment, has so far received 42,000 bookings, with 15,000 orders already been completed. In fact, the Venue even managed to outsell the segment-leading Maruti Vitara Brezza in August 2019.
Last month, however, its MoM sales performance fell from 9,342 units in August 2019 to 7,942 units in September 2019. The Brezza, on the other hand, saw a whopping 46 per cent improvement in its MoM sales performance from 7,109 units in August 2019 to 10,362 units last month.
In spite of this, it won’t be wrong to say that the Hyundai Venue has played a key role in helping its carmaker sail through the slowdown without much trouble. The high popularity of the Kia Seltos and the Hyundai Venue clearly show that there’s enough demand for well-sorted models despite the slowdown that the entire market has been witness to.