Powered by Vitara Brezza, Maruti Suzuki outclasses Mahindra as top UV maker of India

Mahindra & Mahindra is widely considered as the UV specialist of India with models such as Scorpio and XUV500. On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki is regarded as a small car specialist. However, Maruti Suzuki's Vitara Brezza has now made a strong entry into the SUV space.

Latest data from Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) shows Maruti Suzuki has climbed to the pole position among the UV makers in India. In the Q1 (April-June) of current financial year, Maruti Suzuki's market share in UV space increased to 30.5 percent. The Indo-Japanese outfits' market share during the same period last year was 22.26 percent.

Mahindra & Mahindra lost its numero uno position. The Mumbai-based automaker's UV market share was 31.62 percent in April-June 2016. The figure has now come down to 27.92 percent.

Mahindra has been steadily losing ground to rivals for the past few years despite launching new SUVs such as TUV300 and KUV100. Mahindra was clearly in the driving seat of UV space with 55.59 market share in 2011-12 which dipped to 47.67 percent in 2012-13, falling further to 41.72 percent in 2013-14 and 37.36 percent in 2014-15.

Meanwhile, Vitara Brezza is on a song. The first compact SUV of the company currently gets over 10,000 takers per month. Launched in March 2016, Vitara Brezza still commands nearly three months of waiting period. In addition, the healthy sales of S-Cross crossover and Ertiga MPV helped Maruti Suzuki to reach top spot of India's UV space.

With Vitara Brezza sales steadily increasing and Mahindra SUV sale on the decline, it will be difficult for the latter to regain its lost mojo anytime soon.