Maruti unseats Mahindra as UV market leader in AprilJune
MUMBAI: Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd’s core utility vehicle segment is under attack. The maker of the Scorpio and XUV500 models has lost its pole position in the segment to passenger car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, shows the latest data from auto industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). In the three months to June, while Mahindra’s market share in the utility vehicle (UV) segment dropped to 27.92% from 31.62% last year, Maruti’s share during the period climbed to 30.5% from 22.26% a year ago.
To be sure, the fall in Mahindra’s market share is not sudden. The automaker has been steadily losing ground to rivals for the past few years—first to the local arms of Renault SA and Ford Motor Co, which redefined the segment with the Duster and EcoSport compact sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in 2012, and recently to Maruti Suzuki and Honda Cars India Ltd.
While Maruti has been able to hit the jackpot with the Brezza compact SUV offering from day one, the WR-V— another compact SUV launched in March this year— has helped Honda increase its share to 6.60% in the quarter ended June from 3.84% a year ago, according to Siam.
From a peak of 55.59% in 2011-12, Mahindra’s share in the UV segment dipped to 47.67% in 2012-13, falling further to 41.72% in 2013-14 and 37.36% in 2014-15. New launches helped the company recover volumes marginally and inch up its share to 37.90% in 2015-16. The following year it dropped to 29.20%, the lowest in five years.
Rajan Wadhera, president, automotive sector at M&M Ltd, said the UV segment has seen almost 20 new product launches in the last five years, resulting in not only the expansion of the segment but also in its fragmentation.
“In addition to this, there are some external factors which have not been conducive for us. For example, the increasing demand for petrol SUVs and our limited presence in this segment is one of the reasons,” Wadhera added.
Two of Mahindra’s big-selling models—the Bolero and, to an extent, the Scorpio—are rural-centric. Rural distress impacted sales of the two models, said Mahantesh Sabarad, head-retail research at SBI Cap Securities. Maruti’s rise in the segment, on the other hand, has to do with urbancentric models, he said.