Hyundai becomes the leading SUV manufacturer in July for the first time

New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India Ltd - country’s second largest vehicle manufacturer- has taken over Maruti Suzuki India Ltd as the leading manufacturer of utility vehicles in the July, as a result of the overwhelming response received for Venue, the South Korean company’s first compact sport utility vehicle.

Hyundai first tasted success in the utility vehicle market with Creta, which was launched in 2015 and the company continues to sell around 8000 units on an average every month.

Now with the increasing bookings for Venue, after the launch in the domestic market, Hyundai’s share in the utility vehicle space has been further bolstered.

In July, Hyundai’s total utility vehicle despatches stood at 16,234 units compared to 15,178 units sold by Maruti to its dealers. Mahindra and Mahindra’s wholesales in their space stood at 16,003 on the back of recently launched XUV 300.

Back in 2017, Maruti Suzuki took over the mantle of leading manufacturer of utility vehicles from Mahindra and Mahindra, after the company launched the Vitara Brezza, its first in the compact UV segment. Along with that it’s multi-purpose vehicle Brezza was also a favourite of customers.

Mahindra on the other hand couldn’t fight back with its products TUV 300 and KUV100 but with the recently introduced XUV 300, the company has managed to compete with the existing players in the system.

For Maruti, Vitara Brezza has been the best seller over the last two fiscal years. In the current fiscal, apart from the downturn in the economy, the announcement of the company phasing out diesel vehicles from April, 2020, has also impacted sales. In July the company significantly reduced wholesale dispatches of the vehicle as total sales crashed by 36%. Also, Maruti is expected to introduce a petrol engine powered Vitara Brezza in the next few months and the company might be trying to ease the pressure of its dealerships and create some room for the upcoming variant.

In July, Hyundai dispatched 9585 units of Venue compared to 5,032 units of Vitara Brezza and 4,464 units of XUV 300. At a time, when the demand in the domestic market has nosedived to a multi decade low, Hyundai has received more than 50,000 bookings for Venue.

New entrant MG Motor India Ltd has also stopped receiving bookings for its first product Hector after it touched the 28,000 mark, as the company doesn’t have the capacity to quickly ramp up its manufacturing capacity in its Gujarat plant.