King Off The Road: Maruti pips M&M to take top spot in utility vehicles in FY18

Maruti Suzuki India sold more utility vehicles (UVs) than Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) in 2017-18 to emerge the top player in the domestic passenger vehicles market with a share of 50%. Its share in 2016-17 was 47.4%.

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) data released on Tuesday showed Maruti’s total sales of UVs in 2017-18 was 253,759 units, giving it a market share of 27.53% up from 25.7% in 2016-17.

In a first, the Japanese company notched up sales of over 1.5 million units across all products. At 1.65 million units, volumes were up 15% over 2016-17, a pace that was nearly twice as high as the passenger vehicle (PV) segment growth rate.

Although it has been a late entrant to the segment, products like the Ertiga, Brezza and S-Cross have been popular. M&M, which has for long ruled the UV segment, sold 233,915 units in 2017-18, commanding a share of 25.38%, smaller than the share of 29.20% in 2016-17.

Tata Motors, whose Tiago and Nexon proved popular, improved market share in the PV segment to 5.71% in 2017-18 from 5.03% in 2016-17.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited