Calendar Year 2021 was an interesting one for the Indian car industry. While there were some big ticket launches, the year also saw multiple challenges due to the second Covid wave, global semiconductor crisis and some extremely long waiting periods for some of the fast selling models. Let’s have a look at the Top 30 cars of the last year and see how they fared vs 2020.
Maruti WagonR overtook the Swift to become the most sold car of the country in 2021. With overall sales of 1.83 lakh units, it commanded a market share of 6% in the entire automotive market. It must be noted that many OEMs struggle to capture even a 5% market share of the market whereas the WagonR alone could manage a 6% market share.
Swift, which was on top of the list last year, slipped to the second spot with overall sales growth at 9%. Baleno managed to retain its position at the third spot while the Alto took WagonR’s 2020 spot, which was the 4th on the list.
The 5th spot on the list was grabbed by the duo of Ertiga and XL6. The MPVs recorded a strong double digit growth of 48% over their 2020 numbers. The first non-Maruti on the list happens to be the Hyundai Creta which secured the 6th spot for itself. With a 29% growth in sales, the SUV managed to retain a market share of 4%.
Maruti’s Dzire, Vitara Brezza and the Eeco grabbed the 7th, 8th and 9th spots, respectively. The 10th spot on the list was secured by the Tata Nexon, which climbed 8 spots from its 2020 rankings. With monthly sales of around 9,000 units, it posted a 122% growth over its 2020 sales numbers. Overall, the Top 10 cars dominated the market and held a sizeable market share of 47%.
While the Top 10 cars were majorly from Maruti, the list of Top 11-20 had better participation from the rest of the manufacturers. The list had 4 Hyundais, 2 Tatas, 2 Kias and one model from Toyota and Mahindra, each. One of the notable mentions happened to be the Kia Sonet which jumped 7 points to land on the 14th spot, up from the 21st ranking which it had got in 2020.
Surprisingly, even the Toyota Innova recorded a 62% growth over its 2020 numbers and saw its market share change from 1% to 2%. The cars in the 11-20th spots, combined, managed to contribute to 25% of car sales of the Indian market.
| No | Top 30 Cars | CY 2021 | CY 2020 | Growth % YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WagonR | 1,83,851 | 1,48,298 | 23.97 |
| 2 | Swift | 1,75,052 | 1,60,765 | 8.89 |
| 3 | Baleno | 1,72,237 | 1,53,986 | 11.85 |
| 4 | Alto | 1,66,233 | 1,54,076 | 7.89 |
| 5 | Ertiga | 1,54,310 | 1,04,185 | 48.11 |
| 6 | Creta | 1,25,437 | 96,989 | 29.33 |
| 7 | Dzire | 1,16,222 | 1,24,969 | -7.00 |
| 8 | Brezza | 1,15,962 | 83,666 | 38.60 |
| 9 | EECO | 1,14,524 | 99,480 | 15.12 |
| 10 | Nexon | 1,08,577 | 48,841 | 122.31 |
| 11 | Venue | 1,08,007 | 82,428 | 31.03 |
| 12 | Seltos | 98,147 | 96,932 | 1.25 |
| 13 | i10 NIOS | 95,515 | 91,930 | 3.90 |
| 14 | Sonet | 79,289 | 38,363 | 106.68 |
| 15 | i20 | 72,292 | 73,414 | -1.53 |
| 16 | Altroz | 69,744 | 47,070 | 48.17 |
| 17 | S-Presso | 65,478 | 67,690 | -3.27 |
| 18 | Bolero | 65,313 | 53,137 | 22.91 |
| 19 | Tiago | 64,994 | 49,486 | 31.34 |
| 20 | Innova | 55,250 | 34,078 | 62.13 |
| 21 | XUV300 | 47,432 | 32,197 | 47.32 |
| 22 | Amaze | 39,697 | 37,484 | 5.90 |
| 23 | Aura | 37,584 | 36,304 | 3.53 |
| 24 | Scorpio | 36,945 | 31,240 | 18.26 |
| 25 | City | 34,133 | 21,826 | 56.39 |
| 26 | Magnite | 34,086 | 560 | 5986.79 |
| 27 | Celerio | 32,853 | 59,463 | -44.75 |
| 28 | Triber | 32,766 | 38,906 | -15.78 |
| 29 | Ignis | 32,735 | 27,200 | 20.35 |
| 30 | Thar | 32,139 | 4,865 | 560.62 |
| – | Total | 25,66,804 | 20,99,828 | 22.24 |
The next set of cars on the list further added more OEM names on the leaderboard. The list comprises 3 Mahindras, 2 Hondas, 2 Marutis and 1 model each from Hyundai, Nissan and Renault. The Magnite from Nissan, thanks to its aggressive pricing, saw a dramatic increase in sales by 5987% over 2020. Also, the fact that it was launched around December’20, led to an extremely low base for the crossover.
The Mahindra Thar which just managed to make the cut and reach the 30th spot could have done better, if the supply side situation would have been better as the model still commands a waiting period which runs into months.
This post was last modified on January 14, 2022 7:09 am