The last financial year (FY 2015-2016) was an encouraging year for Indian automobile industry as most automakers had shown an increase in their sales numbers. The year saw many improvements and adoption of higher safety standards by automobile manufacturers, which in turn helped in the positive growth of the automotive industry. There were some important vehicle launches during the year. However, Maruti Suzuki India ruled the market with many of its models appearing in the top 10 selling cars of FY 2015-2016. There was a growth of 11.5% in 2015-16 for Maruti Suzuki India, India’s largest car maker for well over 20 years. For the fourth year in a row, the top four best-selling models in India are from Maruti with a new one (Maruti Celerio) joining the list at 7th position. Hyundai Motor India’s car models took the second slot and Honda Motor India as the third largest carmaker in India. Hyundai Motor has a total of three models in the top ten selling cars’ list and Honda India has two models featuring in the list.
Here is a list of the top selling cars in FY 2015-16
Maruti Suzuki Alto: The top selling car for the last 4 years is the Alto. In fact, Alto can be considered as the best seller for well over a decade now. Though there was a marginal decline of 0.4% in sales, it still tops the list and more than 263, 422 units were sold in the last fiscal year. In fact, Maruti holds the record of maintaining its manufacturing of more than 250,000 units of Alto every year.
Maruti Suzuki Dezire: The compact sedan Dzire showed a growth of 4% in sales since last year. There was a sale of 1,99,100 units. The total units produced last year was getting closer to Alto at 2.34 lakh units.
Maruti Suzuki Swift: The total units sold for Maruti Swift stood at 1,95,043 units in 2015-16, which showed a decline in sales at 3%. Still, it is at the third slot in the list of the best selling cars in India in 2015.
Maruti Suzuki WagonR: The fourth position in the best selling cars of India in 2015 was occupied by Maruti Suzuki WagonR. A total of 169,555 units were sold which showed an increase of 5% as compared to its previous FY 2014-15.
Hyundai Grand i10: With the top four positions in the best selling cars of India being occupied by Maruti India, Hyndai India now comes in, playing second fiddle to Maruti. Among the Hyundai models, the top selling is Hyundai Grand i10 and it takes the fifth position as the best-selling car in 2015. The total units sold were 1,26,181 which showed a 27% growth. It had snatched that position from Mahindra Bolero.
Hyundai Elite i20: The real star of Hyundai was the sleek looking Elite i20. It sold 1,26,028 units last fiscal year showing a growth of 62%. Hyundai’s Elite i20 sees the highest year-on-year growth. It is also the first time two Hyundai cars have managed to sell more than 100,000 units in a year
Maruti Suzuki Celerio: On the seventh position comes yet another Maruti model, the new Celerio. It sold 87,428 units in 2015 showing a growth of 28%. One reason of its growth was the introduction of the diesel version in mid-2015.
Honda City: The last three positions in the list of top 10 selling cars in India are occupied by Honda. The Honda City sold at 77,548 units last fiscal year, with 0.2% growth in sales. It occupied the eight position.
Honda Eon: The ninth position was taken by Hyundai Eon, which sold 68,199 units and recorded a negative growth of 13% in FY 2015-16. In FY 2014-16, Eon had occupied the sixth position.
Honda Amaze: The Amaze model of Honda retained its position at tenth slot. However, it showed a negative growth of 18% with 54,594 cars sold in 2015.
Other promising cars in 2015-16
Leaving aside the top 10 car models, there were few other cars which had good sales last year. These are the promising cars for the future. Maruti’s own production, Baleno and Vitara Brezza, are cannibalising the sales of other Maruti products. Among the Hyundai models, Hyundai Creta emerged as a hot favourite for customers last year. The Renault Kwid is another model whose sales were good but could not reach the top 10 position. Tata’s Tiago is another car model which had a promising sale last year. All these car models can shake up the list of top selling cars in 2016-2017.
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