Offered only with a diesel engine option, Tata Harrier has posted tremendous growth in Aug 2020
Launched back in Jan 2019, Tata Harrier had an impressive first few months of sales. But post the launch of Hector and Kia Seltos in mid 2019, Harrier sales declined drastically. It was falling behind its rivals in performance as well as features.
2019 Harrier did not get dual tone alloys nor it got panoramic sunroof. It was offered with less powerful 140 PS diesel engine with only manual transmission. Fast forward to Jan 2020, and Tata has more or less tackled these issues. Updated Harrier comes with more features, larger alloys, more powerful 170 PS diesel engine, as well as an automatic transmission option.
The result is for all of us to see. Harrier sales have started to increase. So much so that, in Aug 2020, Harrier posted its highest single month sales, in the last 15 months. Sales stood at 1,694 units in Aug 2020. The last time Harrier sales were higher than Aug 2020, was way back in May 2019, just before the launch of MG Hector.
Compared to Aug 2019, Tata Harrier sales have grown by 167%. But, it is still not No 1 in the segment. As you can see in the sales table comparison above, MG Hector is still the leader in the segment with 2,732 units sold in Aug 2020. Do note that Hector sales also includes sales of Hector Plus. MG has not revealed break up of sales between Hector and Hector Plus.
Hector is offered with petrol as well as diesel engine option. This has also helped MG to maintain its lead in the segment. About 50% of Hector sales are of petrol variants and remaining are of diesel variants. Tata has plans to launch Harrier petrol. Test mules have been spied and launch is expected to take place sometime next year.
Market Share
Speaking about other cars in the table, Mahindra XUV500 sales for Aug 2020 stood at 919 units while that of Jeep Compass stood at 468 units. In comparison to Aug 2019 sales figures, this is a decline of 5% and 22% respectively.
| No | SUV | Aug-20 | Aug-19 | Diff | % | MS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hector | 2,732 | 2,018 | 714 | 35.38 | 47.00 |
| 2 | Harrier | 1,694 | 635 | 1,059 | 166.77 | 29.14 |
| 3 | XUV500 | 919 | 968 | -49 | -5.06 | 15.81 |
| 4 | Compass | 468 | 605 | -137 | -22.64 | 8.05 |
| – | Total | 5,813 | 4,226 | 1,587 | 37.55 | 100.00 |
Together, the 4 SUVs managed to register sales of 5,813 units in Aug 2020. This is higher by 37%, than the total in Aug 2019 of 4,226 units. Speaking about market share, Aug 2020 saw Hector market share at 47% while that of Harrier at 29%.
Next Launches
With SUVs being the most in demand these days, all car makers above are working on launching either updates of existing SUVs, or new SUVs. MG will launch the Gloster later this year. Tata has plans to launch Gravitas, HBX and Harrier petrol next year. Mahindra plans to launch Thar next month, new Gen Scorpio and XUV500 will come next year. Jeep has plans to launch facelifted Compass next year.
