Hyundai dispatched 7,049 units of the recently launched Venue in May 2019, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza sales dropped by 44% to just 8,781 units
The sub-4M SUV segment has become immensely popular in the last three years courtesy of the highly capable and competitive vehicles from the leading manufacturers. Maruti Vitara Brezza blew away the competition soon after going on sale in early 2016 as it outgrew the then benchmark Ford EcoSport in very little time and raised the bars up high.
The arrival of Tata Nexon in September 2017 further tightened up the prospects as the aggressively priced SUV got hold of the second position in the segment’s monthly chart by regularly averaging around 5,000 units. However, the Nexon’s stronghold quickly came under jeopardy due to the debut of Mahindra XUV 300 in February 2019.
Mahindra’s latest attempt to grab market share in the subcompact SUV space has certainly worked with the XUV300 as it beat EcoSport in its very first month with more than 4,400 unit sales and followed it up by toppling Nexon from its second position in April 2019 with 4,742 units. Whereas in May 2019, Over 5000 units of XUV300 sold to beat Nexon & Ecosport for a consecutive second month. Hyundai was long pondering over entering the segment and it debuted the Carlino Concept way back in 2016.
Despite being late to the party, Hyundai is certain to make a huge impact with the Venue endorsed as “India’s first connected SUV” and the first signs are here to see. When the bookings opened, the Venue registered reservations from 2,000 customers in its first day and Hyundai has announced that 7,049 units have been dispatched from the production base in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu in May 2019.
| Model | May 2019 | May 2018 |
| Maruti Vitara Brezza | 8,781 | 15,629 |
| Hyundai Venue | 7,049 | – |
| Mahindra XUV300 | 5,113 | – |
| Tata Nexon | 4,506 | 4,308 |
| Ford Ecosport | 3,604 | 5,003 |
| Honda WR-V | 1,520 | 1,962 |
| TUV300 | 1,393 | 1,939 |
It has been said that Hyundai is planning to deliver 15,000 Venues by July and it sticks in line with the target of retailing 8,000-9,000 units of the five-seater every month in its first calendar year. With 7,049 units in May 2019, the Venue has certainly got the better of Mahindra XUV300, Tata Nexon, Ford EcoSport and Honda WR-V.
While XUV300 crossed 5,000 units sales mark for the first time last month, Tata Nexon too registered 5% growth with 4,506 units mark. However, Ecosport sales dropped by 28% as 3,604 units sold against 5,003 units sold in the same month last year whereas Vitara Brezza is the biggest loser with a 44% drop in sales last month as only 8,791 units dispatched from Gurgaon plant as against 15,629 units in the same month last year. As expected, Hyundai Venue dented the sales of segment leader Vitara Brezza.
Since the automotive industry is on a downward sales trend with every manufacturer recording negative growth, improvements beyond their regular monthly average cannot be expected.
Data Source: AutoPunditz