Market share gains tough in competitive auto space

Maruti Suzuki has never been so busy. It has launched 10 models in less than two years, but despite this model onslaught – of which four are SUVs – the carmaker’s market share hasn’t changed much.

Maruti Suzuki ended H1FY24 with 42.17% market share, having sold 873,107 cars in a total market of 2,070,163 units, according to data shared by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). This isn’t very different from the 41.3% share it had in FY23 (when it sold 1,606,870 cars in a total market of 3,890,114 units).

“Competition has been intense. From FY23 to H1FY24, Hyundai India has grown its market share from 14.58% to 14.83%, and Mahindra from 9.23% to 10.38%,” an analyst said. “Maruti Suzuki and these two carmakers have grown at the cost of Tata Motors (whose market share marginally reduced from 13.99% to 13.72%), Kia India (which lost a substantial share, from 6.92% in FY23 to 5.82% in H1FY24), and smaller players.”

But launching four new SUVs – new Brezza, Grand Vitara, Fronx and Jimny – has made Maruti Suzuki a significant SUV player, and within SUVs its market share has almost doubled from 12.6% in FY23 to about 22% in H1FY24. Armed with the Fronx – the Baleno-based mini-SUV – its sub-4 metre SUV sales grew 136.4% in H1FY24, from 66,827 units to 158,009 units.

Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer, marketing & sales, Maruti Suzuki India, told FE that a late full-fledged entry into the SUV space did lead to some market share loss, but the carmaker has more than made up for it by launching SUVs across segments in quick succession. “In FY23, our market share in SUVs was just 12.6%. Beginning of that year we had only one SUV model in our portfolio, the Brezza. In September 2022, we launched the Grand Vitara, followed by the Fronx (April 2023) and the Jimny (June 2023),” he said. “Armed with four SUV models, that share touched a high of 24.5% in the July-August FY24 period. In the financial year thus far, we have maintained a 22% market share in SUVs.”

Maruti Suzuki’s highest-ever market share was in FY19, when it not only clocked best domestic sales, at 1,729,826 units, but also enjoyed 51.2% share of the total passenger vehicle market of 3,377,389 units in that year.

That dropped to 51% in FY20, 47.7% in FY21, 43.4% in FY22, and just 41.3% in FY23, before rising to 42.17% in H1FY24, which is expected to rise further.

The 10 models the carmaker has launched post-Covid-19 are the new Celerio (November 2021), six models in 2022 – new Baleno (February), new Ertiga and XL6 (April), new Brezza (June), new Alto (August) and Grand Vitara (September) – and three in 2023 (Fronx, Jimny and Invicto).