Cars in demand: Maruti Alto, Renault Kwid top segment sales in March 2019
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Alto’s March demand significantly lower than February 2019.
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What could be the reason of Alto’s lower-than-normal demand - new-gen model or discontinuation of Alto 800?
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Hyundai Eon has now been discontinued.
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Only other competition is the Renault Kwid and Datsun redi-Go.
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Both Kwid and redi-GO’s March demand surpassed their respective half-yearly average demand
In this day and age when SUVs are the trend, entry-level hatchbacks continue to do their job of making up the numbers, effortlessly.The Maruti Alto, Renault’s Kwid and Datsun’s redi-Go are all part of this segment. The Hyundai Eon also used to be a part of this segment, until it was discontinued recently.
| March 2019 | February 2019 | MoM Growth | Market share current(%) | Market share (% last year) | YoY mkt share (%) | Average sales (6 months) | |
| Maruti Suzuki Alto | 16826 | 24751 | -32.01 | 69.95 | 64.11 | 5.84 | 21814 |
| Renault Kwid | 5853 | 5050 | 15.9 | 24.33 | 16.1 | 8.23 | 5484 |
| Datsun redi-GO | 1374 | 1293 | 6.26 | 5.71 | 7.39 | -1.68 | 1187 |
Takeaways
Maruti Alto Still The People’s Choice: The Alto’s demand has taken a huge dip compared to the previous month, however, the sales numbers are still far ahead of any other car in its segment. Taking a look at the Alto’s average six months demand, March’s numbers either hint at an update around the corner or discontinuation of Alto 800. The Alto K10 has been updated to meet the new mandate of having ABS, driver airbag and reverse parking sensors as standard. There’s no word about the Alto 800 being updated to meet the norms. Maruti Suzuki is also testing a Future-S concept-based hatchback which is likely to be the next-gen Alto. Is it coming sooner than expected? Only time will tell.
Renault Kwid and Datsun redi-Go together can’t catch up to the Alto: The Kwid and redi-Go are both based on the same platform. Still, their combined demand is less than half of Alto’s in March, 2019, and this is when Maruti saw a 32 per cent dip in the Alto’s sale!
Disclaimer: This article has not been edited by Deccan Chronicle and is taken from a syndicated feed. Photos: CarDekho.
