[a4anurag]

Presenting the 2016 Report Card - Annual Indian Sales

Source: Google Images

PS:

• Thanks to MOD Aditya and GTO to permit me to post this thread and also for sharing the data they had to make my life easier.
  
  
• I have used a similar format of what GTO used when presenting the 2015 Annual Report Card thread (Here (The 2015 Report Card - Annual Indian Car Sales & Analysis!)). Thanks!
  
  
• Please click to open the image on a New Tab for better readability.

[a4anurag]

Here's how they fare individually (model-wise) Year-on-Year!

[a4anurag]

[a4anurag]

Chevrolet

With so much of experience in other countries on sales, service, customer needs, priorities etc, why is this manufacturer failing miserably here in India as they could only manage to send their cars to 29000 houses in 2016 all cars put together which is a drop by 8000 compared to 2015. Not sure how these guys manage to pay all the down-line guys!!

By looking the chart, says one thing is they have steadily lost sales from 1.11 lakh units a year to 29,000 units in just 4-5 years. Many companies are struggling to have a graph look the other way round but Chevrolet year after year is not getting into action eve after they are witnessing a drop in sales. 2011-20112, saw a major drop; again the same kind was witnessed in 2013-2014 & 2014-2015.

If 2016 sales are looked at, Beat and Tavera are the ones that gave the manufacturer some numbers to be pleased which was followed by Enjoy and Sail Sedan but if Y-o-Y movement is looked at the Cruze and Enjoy are the only ones that are on the positive side whereas the rest are all miserable and nothing to write about.

Tavera and Beat contribute to 33% approximate sales share each in the total sales achieved by Chevrolet in 2016. Enjoy contributed by 19% in 2016. Trailbrazer seems to be a dud sitting in the last at 88 units in 2016 contributing only 0.3% sales share.

Is the company reeling under the Emission scandal that was unearthed in 2013 where the brand has been damaged permanently?!

Saw a recent thread in the Indian Car scene that General Motors is sinking and the losses have piled up to almost ₹1100 crores 2015-16. Sad state!

[a4anurag]

Datsun

2013 was when Datsun was launched in India with their first car – Go!! Go, Go+ and Redi-Go are the three cars sold under this brand, a competitor to the WagonR, Alto and Eon mainly.

The sharp increase in the graph is mainly due to RediGo's launch.

The Go selling near 10K units in 2016 witnessed a 17% Y-o-Y growth compared to last year. Bare-bones and heavy cost cutting and poor service network didn’t help the manufacturer get the desired sales numbers. It was the initial hype that got them 2K dispatches during mid-2014 but by the end of the year, figures dropped to 500 units a month. 2015, it sold about 550-600 units a month whereas in 2016, it sold near 1K units on average.

On the opposite end is the Go+ MPV which has had a miserable run in 2016 selling only 8k units.

Latest entrant into the Indian market by Datsun is the Redi-Go, a funky VFM car that is targeted to the youth of the country with a cheap price tag. Launched in May’16, Datsun has dispatched 20K copies which is remarkable in its own regard due to the low reach (limited showrooms and lesser known rand name for customers to trust). The year 2017 will be the one that would speak for this car whether it is accepted or not by the masses.

The Redi-Go contributed by 53% of the total sales Datsun achieved in 2016 whereas the GO did 26.2% and GO+ at 21%.

Looking at the numbers and car that Datsun is reeling out of their factories, not pretty clear what they are aiming at!! It is just dragging its feet till things finally breakdown to a dead stop.

[a4anurag]

Fiat

Punto, Abarth and Linea are the major ones that are on sale in India that target the regular customer. Both the Punto and Linea have a negative Y-o-Y % of -23% and -34% respectively. Evo, Avventura clubbed are selling hardly 500 units a month on an average but the Linea has fallen to 100 units a month. All sales put-together in 2016 of 6.7K units, Datsun sold more of their model Go (10K units).

It is disturbing to see such beautiful cars vanishing from our roads and people’s mind. Why the distress signal that is being given out is not addressed?! What more damage are they waiting for before realization?!

It is currently sitting with Hindustan Motors at the end of the chart with 0.24% market share. Funny to see how they sell so low volumes in India compared to the rest of the world where they are treated well. Not sure what strategy they follow when it comes to selling cars. Established in 1997, it gave the country some fantastic cars like Palio, Grande Punto but as years passed by, the number of products that were on offer were lesser in numbers over the ones that were discontinued.

It feels that Fiat is just surviving in India on the revenue generated by the engines that it sells to Maruti, Tata and Chevrolet though the main contributor is Maruti. Initially it was the 1.3L MJD that was being offered by Fiat but now it is lending the 1.6L MJD too.

Fiat have great engines in hand, they manufacture good quality cars but still no sales. Why can’t the management focus on marketing, sales and service pan India?! What is stopping them from showcasing genuine cars (not churning out the models of the same cars in different outfits)?

[a4anurag]

Ford

Anyone who is interested to know what happens to products that are brilliant in most parameters but still don’t sell well as competition, just point a finger at Ford India. Figo and Aspire, these two cars though similar in many regards have everything to dethrone the leaders of the market current but still that feat is no-where in sight. It is just chugging along the road with no real efforts from the management to push the cars of the shelf based on merit.

Graph is atleast looking to be on the growing side from 2014 which was their worst year so far. Now it looks that they are achieving to reach the same sales how they had got in 2011.

With 19000 copies dispatched in 2016 of the Aspire, Maruti did the same figure in July’16. Same is the case with Figo hatch at 15K units sold in the whole year of 2016 where Maruti did the same number with Swift in the month of Feb’16. Isn’t that a proof of what marketing and sales team has to do which they aren’t doing since launch?!

I see EcoSport doing a consistent 4K units a month whereas the Aspire and Figo are at 1.5-2K units.

This year saw them selling 9000 units compared to 2015 where the major contribution was from Endeavour dispatches. Only the Figo was in the negative side of the scale whereas Aspire, Endeavour and EcoSport were on the positive side.

Can someone tell the management at Ford to NOT remove features and hike prices? This has a by and large negative effect in the minds of the customer. Even though their cars have a VFM tag at the time of launch, as days pass by, features go down and prices go up. Not the way if the manufacturer is interested to gain market share.

A question GTO left asking in the 2015 Report Card for Ford:

Ford surely has the cars to cross the magical 100,000 mark, but.....will it?

Sadly it couldn’t hit the 1 lakh units mark in this year even with fantastic cars in their portfolio that can make the competition run for cover.

[a4anurag]

Hindustan Motors/Mitsubishi

Lesser said, better.

-57.7% drop in the Y-o-Y movement over last year. Pajero Sport being the only one that gave them some sales in 2016 but that also was a negative plunge by almost 1000 units compared to 2015. Montero could only reach 5 houses in 2016.

With a dead parent company and less number of dealers this SUV can’t be seeing many takers.

[a4anurag]

Honda

With a plunge in total sales by 50K units compared to 2015 that was marked as their best with 2 lakh hits, this year witnessed a drop by 23%. Save the fact that BR-V and Jazz have given the manufacturer numbers to see on their presentations conducted.

Amaze, City and Mobilio are the worst performers as compared to last year whereby loosing 29K, 25K and 11K units respectively. It was these cars that brought luck to Honda and this year it is the opposite.

Jazz started off well by reaching the 4K mark but thereon it dropped to 1.6K by the year-end. Same is the story with City witnessing a drop from 8K units in Jan to 2.9K in December. Mobilio is a dead product with average sales of 200 units a month in 2016 which was a major disappointment to many customers due to the cheap build and interiors that were picked up from its sibling, Brio. The interiors were okay for the Brio but not for a car that costed so much.

BR-V being a 2016 launch, figures would be in positive. In coming months a clear picture would be put forward. But if the monthly sales figures are to be gone by starting from April, it hit the peak of 3K units in July but dropped 1.6K by December.

Honda needs to seriously rethink and get offerings to the market that is fresh and not some kind of Jugaad. Honda was known for standards in Quality of the cars offered but they too are lagging behind and letting go that image which they made up.

[a4anurag]

Hyundai

Best year for Hyundai so far with sales touching 5 lakh cars/year mark which is an increase by 5.2% compared to last year. It sold 30K units more thereby hitting the 5 lakh mark. Thanks to Creta, they could achieve these numbers.

If all their offerings are compared to the respective sales figures in 2015, only two cars come out on the greener side of the scale i.e Creta and the i10 Grand. Their second best offering, Elite i20 saw a drop by 6% in sales. The Xcent dropped down by 2.5% whereas the Santa Fe saw the largest dip by 70% compared to 2015 by almost 900 units.

Creta currently is riding on a success wave that is commendable even though it is over-priced slightly compared to the rest. It alone sold near 93K units in 2016 which is 18.5% of the total sales in 2016 that Hyundai managed. Similar is the number for Elite i20 and Grand i10 at 24.4% and 27.2% respectively.

This manufacturer is giving the Indian market leader sleepless nights with quality and feature packed cars with frugal engines that are balanced on both the power ratings and FE numbers. The Indian customer is less interested in the corner carving abilities of the cars hence Hyundai sells well even though some cars in their line-up handle like a boat.

Xcent is one offering that is not able to reach the sales standards that Dzire is putting out. In 2016 the Dzire sold 2 lakh units which translate to a 75% lead that Dzire is maintaining over the Xcent. The other offering that is eating dust is the Verna selling only 16,500 units in 2016, which contributed to the total sales by 3.3%. This car seriously needs a facelift that can get head-on with the Ciaz that has dethroned the market leader too (Honda City). Hyundai should definitely concentrate and give their best to acquire some share in the sales in C2 segment. That segment is a volume based and attention to detail plus customer needs must be fulfilled so as to stay afloat.

The original i10 has been finally laid to rest by Hyundai in November’16 where a replacement is in the pipeline. Even though it was in its last legs, it sold 20K units contributing 4% of the total sales.

Cars in their portfolio that did not have any substantial impact to the total sales were Elantra, Santa Fe. Elantra and the Tuscon being new currently, it will be best to wait to get a clear image of how they survive in the market for long against the competition.

[a4anurag]

Mahindra & Mahindra

With a market share of 6.8%, Mahindra is the third best-selling manufacturer in India. It is commendable to achieve this as they are main dominating the UV/SUV zone it is this year that has seen step in the volume segment two new launches i.e. NuvoSport and KUV 1OO. Over 2015, this year they achieved a growth of 8.9% which is a gain by 20K units in total.

Majority of the sales numbers are brought-in by the Bolero. A rugged, totally abuse-friendly and reliable UV that serves many in India especially the ones living in the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities where the road quality isn’t good.

The KUV 1OO being a new product has moved 40K units. Will keep an eye on the numbers this car generates in future.

Scorpio and XUV 5OO are the next best sellers after Bolero contributing to the numbers by 21% and 12.6% respectively. The XUV has been averaging at 2K units per month which is fantastic for its price and size too similar story is for the Scorpio where it is doing a 4K+ per month. Mahindra must be laughing all the way to the bank thanks to the profits these cars generate.

Quanto, Verito and Vibe are dead sellers and not much to contribute to the numbers. Same goes for the Xylo as it could be purchased by fleet operators as cabs for the software industry. It is the Taxi industry that is bringing –in numbers for the Xylo, Verito.

Overall been a normal year for Mahindra where the NGT had banned engines greater than 2000 cc effecting Mahindra majorly as they didn’t have any engine below the 2000 cc. It was their quick response by launching 1.99L mHawk in Delhi and NCR, the sales figures were slightly better to read even though they are in the negative Y-o-Y%. No major break-through in the year but just chugging along the road with dying.

[a4anurag]

Maruti Suzuki

Best year again for the Indian leader as it has gained a market share of 47.7% with total sales reaching a whopping 13.94 lakh units. Unbelievable!! Truly astonishing to see them maintaining the leadership during such times when competition is fiercer whereby displaying a gain of 1.06 lakh units over 2015 in other words with a growth of 8.2%.

Majority of the contributors are the usual names in the Top 20 – Alto, Dzire, WagonR and Swift with 17.5%, 14.5%, 12.5% and 12.0% respectively.

Of all the products, Alto, Dzire and Swift have dropped in the Y-o-Y movement 27K, 33K and 38K units respectively. This does say that these leaders in their segments are facing heat from competition. Kwid is giving a tough fight to the Alto, Elite i20 is pressurizing the Swift whereas Dzire could be facing heat from the other compact sedans. Also the drop in numbers could be attributed to the fire incidents that broke out which lead to waiting period soar to the sky leading to many cancellations of bookings.

With new launches this year, Vitara Brezza, the market has responded well with waiting periods running upto 6 months even though it is a diesel only offering. Post petrol engine addition I can expect the numbers to grow even further. It sold almost 85K units in this year since launch. Impressive! Baleno’s sales have reached 1 lakh units in 2016 with Maruti giving importance to clear booking backlogs of both the Brezza and Baleno. Find this car to be VFM and better than the Swift in many areas plus it is commendable to see the number of booking this car is garnering since the reach is limited compared to the other cars from Maruti (Read NEXA strategy).

WagonR, a 17 year old car which is still selling 14.5K units a month in 2016 too does say that how well the Indian customers loves the tall-boy design plus it is the practicality that gets customers drawn towards it. This car has seen a 1.7% growth over sales in 2015. Ertiga is another brilliant offering that has seen customers running towards it after seeing the Innova’s pricing. It is a complete package backed by the reliability, space and sane pricing which lead to success of this model over the competition namely Lodgy and Mobilio. Celerio, another positive seller in Maruti’s kitty moving 90K units in total displaying a growth of 9% Y-o-Y.

S-Cross, under-rated car destroyed by the over-confident pricing by Maruti at the launch which killed the sales and I see it is not going to recover anytime soon unless there is some decent petrol engine on offer too. Diesel-only logic in this time is funny and is even more surprising when it is coming from Maruti. They are the ones who have the entire grip on customers and the way they think and what they want. When did any sales figures convey that India is a more diesel oriented market? It was a few years but now the Petrol sales have picked up too so it should be launched quickly to keep the S-Cross alive in the minds of the Indian customer. Post the price decrease, the car has seen a sales increase by 30%. Come-on Maruti you are under-utilizing this cars potential.

One car that has been put to rest is the Ritz, this car was ignored by Maruti and no efforts were made to get it off the shelves but left to move on its own. It was a practical Maruti Swift with everything underneath tried and tested. Shape, yes, I agree was quirky but grows upon as days pass by. Omni, the cheapest commercial carrier car available in the country selling around 82K units in 2016 growing 4.4% on the Y-o-Y scale. Its contribution in the total sales was 6%. Another masterstroke is from Ciaz which is the current best seller in the C2 segment which was once owned by Honda City now is sagging behind in sales. This car has sold 63K units growing 17% over last year. Simple, spacious and a feature packed car with decent engine as back up are a few reasons which are making it sell well.

At the end of the day and the year, Maruti is one happy manufacturer where most of their offerings are being accepted well in the market. Now they better focus on how to improve the NEXA feel of any customer visiting it. It would been better if they had chosen the RM’s from the automotive industry and not from other backgrounds.

[a4anurag]

Nissan

Worst year for the manufacturer, where they have lost 7K units sale over 2015 and closing the year with 0.50% market share.

They have no sellers in their portfolio except for a better looking ‘Duster’ but it is getting long in the tooth. They need to freshly start with cars for the Indian market if they want to be surviving in India.

It is only Micra that had grown 8% in sale but the rest of them have lost 55% in sales numbers. It is pathetic to see their condition go this way.

[a4anurag]

Renault

Closing the year with a 4.5% market share and a whopping 59% growth over 2015, this manufacturers is found sitting in the middle of the Manufacturers market share chart, all credit’s to the Kwid which has contributed to 80% of the sales Renault displayed.

Rests of them are flops, no doubt. Lodgy, looked like a promising offering but failed to sell compared to the Ertiga. The mild facelift that was given to the Duster helped to sell some numbers but it too failed on the Y-O-Y scale loosing 22%.

[a4anurag]

Skoda

Of the 6 cars that they had in their lineup, only 4 are on sale now and it doesn’t look nice to see figures in negative except for the Superb which grew 47% over last year but Skoda on the whole lost 2K units sale. Skoda sold 13K units in 2016 as compared to 15.5K units in 2015.

Rapid is the main contributor in the total sales that Skoda achieved at 70% but the car is on the negative side of the scale (YOY = -19%). The facelift that the car has received recently should help it gain some numbers in the coming months.

Octavia is consistently doing similar numbers Y-O-Y (2K units a year) which is the second best-selling sedan in its segment (D1) after the Toyota Corolla. The car has contributed to the total sales by 18.2% and is on -10.6% on the YOY scale.

Superb has been selling well over last year gaining almost 500 units with major spike in sales happening in 3 months (Aug, Sept and Oct’16) at 200+ units each month and instantly dipping to 33 units in November and growing slightly to 52 units in December.