India's largest carmaker by volume Maruti Suzuki currently holds an enviable nearly 50 percent market share in India. The Indo-Japanese outfit had a strong run last year with a good mixture of longstanding as well as newer models.
Hence, it's not surprising that Maruti Suzuki is in the pole position in the list of top 10 bestselling cars, with five of its models seal top five slots.
Among the 10 top-selling cars of last year, seven models are from Maruti Suzuki and rest are from the house of Hyundai. That leaves at least 14 others passenger car-makers in India out of the race.
Despite the threat from stablemates, Maruti Suzuki Alto retained the top slot with 2,57,732 unit sales in 2017. The hatchback found more takers last year compared to 2,45,094 unit sales in 2016. The Dzire compact sedan, which got a serious facelift mid-2017, sealed the second spot with 2,25,043 unit sales. The compact sedan's sales increased by 11.7 percent over the 2,02,076 unit sold in 2016.
Maruti Suzuki hatchback models Baleno, Swift and WagonR are the third, fourth and fifth bestselling cars of 2017. The Baleno's sales stood at 1,75,029 with 63.6 percent growth over 2016 and the Swift found 1,67,371 takers last year.
However, the Swift's sales saw a marginal decline of 0.7 percent over 2016. The WagonR also experienced downward growth with 1,66,815 units sales last year against 1,73,286 in 2016.
Hyundai India's workhorse, the Grand i10, was the sixth bestselling car. The small car that got an update in February 2017 notched up 1,54,746 units sales and registered a 13.6 percent growth over 2016. Maruti Suzuki's compact SUV model, the Vitara Brezza, was the seventh bestselling model. Its sales last year stood at 1,40,945 units.
Hyundai models sealed the eighth and ninth spots in the list. The Elite i20 hatchback and Creta SUV grew 13.9 percent to 1,16,260 units and 13.5 percent to 1,05,485 units last year, respectively. The final spot in the top 10 list has been secured by yet another Maruti Suzuki model, the Celerio. With 11.5 percent growth over the sales in 2016, the small found 1,00,860 customers in 2017.
Source: ET Auto