India’s auto market in 2020 falls by 16.5% as the pandemic and lockdowns affect sales. Full-Year sales have been 2.47 Million, the lowest annual volume since 2011. Kia is the star of the year, and impresses by growing 208.3%.
Market Trend
The Indian car market was hit extremely harshly in the first half of 2020 as the global pandemic has impacted sales tremendously, volume even went to 0 in April as strict lockdowns closed businesses, but most impressively the market recovered in the second half. Despite the recovery, this has been the lowest volume since 2011.
It is currently the 5th largest in the World but it is very close to outpacing Japan to gain the fourth position.
Following five years of continuous vigorous growth, in 2018 the Indian car passenger market hit the last all-time record with 3.38 million sales, despite the introduction of the new National Automotive Plan, in mid-year, blocked the growth. In 2019 the market pushed the brakes, falling down 7.4% and registering 3.11 million units.
After starting the year with a slight negative trend (-3.6%), the market quickly collapsed in March as the virus struck. The sharpest drop in sales this year was in April when sales were 0 as the entire country was put in a complete strict lockdown starting from the 23rd of March so all factories suspended production and dealerships closed.
After the country started to reopen slowly in May, the market began to recover very impressively, in fact, in June the market reported only 1.4% loss. This was the last negative month of the year, almost maintaining double-digit growth throughout the entire second half of the year.
Indeed, Full-Year sales for 2020 for the car market have been 2.47 million, reporting a decline of 16.5% compared to 2019.
Brand-wise, the leader Maruti (-18.4%) gained 1.4% market share, followed by Hyundai (-16%), which gained 1% share this year. Tata on the other hand lost 0.2% share, falling 23.4%. Kia jumped 5 positions and reported the best performance in the leaderboard (+208.3%), followed by Mahindra which on the other hand reported the worst performance, losing 50.7% and falling 2 spots.
Toyota lost 31.8%, followed by Renault (-8.3%) and Honda which fell 3 spots and lost 47.6% sales. Closing the leaderboard we have Ford -down 1 spot- losing 37.8% this year and MG entering the leaderboard by jumping 3 spots, gaining 73.9%.
The most sold vehicle this year has been the Maruti Swift (-16.2%) with 160.765 units sold and jumped 2 spots, overtaking the Maruti Alto, which lost 26% registering 154.076 new sales this year. The Maruti Baleno (-16.2%) closes the podium by jumping 1 spot and reports 153.986 new units sold.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for top 10 Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models.
