Premium Sedan Segment Posts 36% Growth, Thanks To Civic & Octavia

The executive sedan segment recorded an overall growth of 36 per cent last month courtesy of the good moving Honda Civic and Skoda Octavia

The D-segment for sedans has seen a lot of activity in 2019 as Honda Cars India brought back the Civic nameplate after more than six years of absence. Since the launch in early March, the tenth generation Civic has received tremendous attention and in its very first month, more than 2,000 units were retailed.

It was an unprecedented feat in recent years as the popularity of the executive sedan as a whole space has arguably plummeted. The Civic maintained its lead in the segment for a few months before Skoda’s Octavia took over the honours but the Civic was back again last month as 336 units were sold.

Only earlier this month, Hyundai Motor India Limited introduced the facelifted Elantra to take the fight to Honda Civic. In its first month, the Elantra managed to garner a total of just 94 units – 3 units more than what it registered during the corresponding month last year but we do expect its sales to go up higher in the coming months.

With several cosmetic and interior changes alongside feature updates, the 2019 Hyundai Elantra is endorsed as the country’s first connected sedan as it boasts Blue Link connectivity as the successfully running Hyundai Venue. The Octavia could only gather less than half as much sales as the Civic in September 2019.

The second-placed Octavia endured good growth as only 144 units were sold during the same month last year. The next-generation Octavia waiting to be waiting to make global premiere in a while is expected to launch in India sometime next year, as Skoda is planning to introduce four new models/facelifts in 2020.

A brand new Toyota Corolla Altis will also likely make its way to India mid-way through 2020 but last month, it only secured domestic sales of 84 per cent as opposed to 264 units during September 2018 with a massive 68 per cent YoY de-growth.