Much before the launch of Venue, top management officials from Hyundai India had claimed that post launch of the Venue, Hyundai aims to become the largest SUV maker in the country. The plans is to sell 10k Creta and 10k Venue every month. If they manage to achieve this, they will become largest maker of SUVs in India by volume.
This was a tall claim. Especially when you consider the competition in the sub 4 meter SUV segment. This segment registers about 25k-30k units in sales every month. And almost half of it is eaten by Maruti, thanks to Brezza.
So in order to succeed, Hyundai will have to not only attract new buyers to the segment, but also eat into the share of rivals. And with the sales report of May 2019 now revealed, it seems that Hyundai has managed to do exactly that.
In the first month of launch, Hyundai has register over 7k units in sales for the Venue. And looking at the sales table, it seems that most of it has come at the expense of Maruti Brezza buyers. Of all the compact SUVs on sale, it is the Brezza which has posted heavy decline in sales. From registering over 15k units in May 2018, Brezza sales were down to under 9k units in May 2019.
Hyundai Venue plus Creta sales for May 2019 stood at 16,103 units. Hyundai is expected to deliver more units of Venue in the coming months, and is on track to achieve their sales target of 20k SUV sales a month in India.
Among the top 5 sub four meter SUVs sold in India were also the Mahindra XUV500, Tata Nexon and Ford EcoSport along with Mahindra Scorpio. Sales of the Mahindra XUV300 stood at 5,113 units managing to better sales of the Nexon and EcoSport in the month of May 2019. During the past month, 4,506 units of the Tata Nexon were sold along with 3,604 units of the Ford EcoSport and 3,476 units of the Mahindra Scorpio.
SUVs continue to be a highly desirable segment in the country. There are many more SUVs planned for launch in India for 2019. This month, Tata Harrier rival MG Hector will be launched. Next month, India’s first all electric SUV, Hyundai Kona will be launched. Tata is getting ready with the launch of Buzzard (Harrier 7 seater), Honda has the HRV SUV lined-up for November launch. In Dec, MG will launch its all electric SUV called eZS.
