January 2018: Car sales report
The first month of the year usually brings good sales numbers for most carmakers. January 2018 wasn’t much different… Unsurprisingly, Maruti Suzuki remained the leading carmaker in India in terms of sales, with six of its models clocking over 10,000 units last month.
By autoX Editorial
The first month of the year usually brings good sales numbers for most carmakers. January 2018 wasn’t much different…
Unsurprisingly, Maruti Suzuki remained the leading carmaker in India in terms of sales, with six of its models clocking over 10,000 units last month.
At 22,540 units, the Dzire retained its title of India’s favourite car, which was followed by the Alto. January 2018 was also the last month for the outgoing Swift to be on sale, and the car still managed to find over 14,000 homes. Furthermore, the Vitara Brezza continued to be India’s best-selling utility vehicle.
Moving onto the Brezza’s competition, Ford sold 6,833 units of the EcoSport, which is a healthy 82 per cent increase for the compact SUV. The American carmaker also moved four units of the iconic Mustang last month. However, the Figo and Figo Aspire, at 814 and 1,270 units respectively, witnessed falling year-on-year sales. The Endeavour stood at 529 units – better than a month before, but still considerably behind the Fortuner (2,136).
Tata moved 4,917 Nexons, making it the second best-selling car for the domestic company after Tiago (8,287). The latter’s notchback version, Tigor, had 3,172 of its units sold, which is around twice its monthly average. The Honda WR-V, on the other hand, became Honda’s strongest selling car in January with a sales figure of 4,273 units. The City stood at 3,968 units, lagging behind both the Ciaz (5,062) and Verna (4,601).
Top 10 cars sold in January 2018
| Model | Units Sold |
| Maruti Suzuki Dzire | 22,540 |
| Maruti Suzuki Alto | 19,134 |
| Maruti Suzuki Baleno | 17,770 |
| Maruti Suzuki Swift | 14,445 |
| Maruti Suzuki WagonR | 14,182 |
| Hyundai Grand i10 | 12,109 |
| Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza | 11,785 |
| Hyundai i20 | 9,650 |
| Hyundai Creta | 9,284 |
| Tata Tiago | 8,287 |
The new premium models from Volkswagen Group – VW Passat, VW Tiguan and Skoda Kodiaq only sold in moderate numbers: 54, 51 and 182 units respectively. VW’s bread and butter, Ameo, also witnessed a 40 per cent year-on-year fall.
Mumbai-based Mahindra continued to sell the Scorpio in strong numbers (5,230), while the more premium XUV500, at 2,316 units, also managed to marginally outsell the Jeep Compass (2,106). However, the best-seller for the company remained the rugged Bolero, which despite its age, found 8,206 new homes last month.
