Hyundai Motor India (HMIL)’s recently launched Santro made Hyundai be eligible for a total of 3 spots out of 10 in this list of top 10 selling cars in October. In the first month of launch, HMIL sent 8535 units of Santro and among 10 best sellers in India, it is positioned at eight.
In the best list, only three carmakers were present- Hyundai, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki.
After a four-year-long break, Santro which made the Korean brand a household name was again launched on 23rd October 2018 in India. Nevertheless, the pre-bookings of Santro began on 10th October 2018.
One of the dealer partners of Hyundai said “The brand legacy of Hyundai Santro and option of automatic and CNG variant has driven a lot of customers to the showroom".
The carmakers claim that approx. 30,000 bookings were received out of which 30 percent were automatic Santro, 21 percent were CNG variant and rest were petrol manual.
"Idea to bring Santro back was to add incremental volume when compared to Eon which is selling around 4000 units a month. So, If the carmaker is able to sell 6000 units of Santro a month. It will be a good 50 percent rise in the volumes," said Gaurav Vangaal, senior analyst (automotive forecasting) at IHS Markit.
He further added, "I think they would be able to sustain these numbers because of the initial novelty factor. Seeing the competition, as there is no product with this kind of novelty factor. Majority of products in the competition are in the last year of their product life cycle. Hyundai Motors will be able to continue to enjoy the market till the time competition bring in new products. So, Santro is here to stay in the top selling cars club."
Top 10 Passenger Car Models Sold in October 2017 & 2018
| Oct\'17 | Models | Rank | Models | Oct\'18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20,610 | DZIRE | 1 | Alto | 22,180 |
| 19,447 | Alto | 2 | Baleno | 18,657 |
| 14,532 | Baleno | 3 | DZIRE | 17,404 |
| 14,417 | Grand i10 | 4 | Swift | 17,215 |
| 13,043 | Wagon R | 5 | Elite i20 | 13,290 |
| 12,209 | Celerio | 6 | Grand i10 | 11,820 |
| 12,057 | Swift | 7 | Wagon R | 10,655 |
| 11,012 | Elite i20 | 8 | Celerio | 9,260 |
| 8,136 | Kwid | 9 | Santro | 8,535 |
| 6,990 | Tiago | 10 | Tiago | 7,549 |
Among other top 10 selling passenger cars, Grand i10 fell two positions down at sixth position with 11820 units while Hyundai Elite i20 jumped three ranks up at the fifth position with 13290 units in the month of October 2018.
Maruti Suzuki, country’s largest passenger vehicle manufacturer also noticed a shuffle among its top-selling cars. Baleno, it’s premium hatchback becomes the second best-selling car with 18657 units knocking down its sibling Dzire to third position and Swift to the fourth position.
Surprisingly, Maruti Wagon R which was in the top 5 selling passenger cars for decades slashed down to the seventh position with 10,655 units. The carmakers are planning to bring the new Wagon R in 2020.
As compared to the October 2017 (12,209 units), the carmaker sold 9260 units in the month of October 2018. While the Tata Tiago is still stuck at the tenth position at 7549 units.