The July month is among the worst-performing months for the Indian auto industry and the premium hatchback segment was not untouched with this slump.
The July month has been even worse for the Indian automobile industry recording 30% dip in overall passenger cars sales. The premium hatchback segment has also suffered a 25% decline, hotly contested by cars like Maruti Suzuki Baleno and Hyundai Elite i20, both of which suffered a huge setback, resulting in such huge decline in segment sales.
For instance, the Maruti Suzuki Baleno despite leading the segment posted a massive sales decline of 42 per cent, making it the worst affected car in July 2019. The largest carmaker in the country sold 10,482 units of the Baleno as against 17,960 units during the same month last year. On a month-on-month basis, Baleno suffered a 23 percent decline as it had 13,689 buyers in June 2019.
Coming to the Korean car manufacturer Hyundai which is also the second-largest carmaker in India and produces the only competitor to the Baleno – the Elite i20, which also endured 17 per cent sales drop in July 2019. Hyundai sold 9,012 nits of Elite i20 last month, but it was nearly 2,000 units down on the corresponding month in 2018. On the month on month basis, that’s merely a 3 percent drop as Hyundai sold 9,271 units of Elite i20 in June 2019.
| Model | July 2019 | July 2018 |
| Maruti Baleno | 10,482 | 17,960 |
| Hyundai Elite i20 | 9,012 | 9,271 |
| Toyota Glanza | 1,804 | New Launch |
| VW Polo | 1,600 | 1,385 |
| Honda Jazz | 719 | 1,869 |
Source: AutoPunditz
The other cars in the segment didn’t perform well either. On the third spot was the rebadged version of Baleno, Toyota Glanza that registered 1,804 unit sales, a massive difference as compared to Hyundai Elite i20. Since Toyota Glanza is launched this month only, y-o-y data is not available.
The fourth and the fifth spot was occupied by Volkswagen Polo and Honda Jazz. While VW Polo did 1,600 units in July 2019, it was the only gainer in the segment registering 16 percent growth. The Honda Jazz, on the other hand was the worst performer in the segment with 62 percent sales decline, selling just 719 units. The segment will get a brand new rival in the form of Tata Altroz in the coming weeks.