Maruti hatchback Ignis registers zero sale in January as auto slowdown persists

Indian automakers are still struggling with constantly falling sales numbers in comparison to the month to month figures of the last year. When drilled down further into model-wise sales, it’s a mixed bag as some models showed impressive growth over January 2019, whereas many recorded lower numbers. The shocking figure is that of the hatchback model Ignis which scored a duck last month, with not even a single vehicle of this model being sold.

This is a rare phenomenon and immediately reminds one of the Tata Nano which ended up selling just one piece across the country over several months.

The entire 2019 was like that and the new year has not brought anything new either. Almost all car makers have reported negative sales figures for January 2020, over January 2019 except for the market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. Maruti managed to sell a marginally higher 1.6% more vehicles in the first month of 2020, as compared to 2019.

Maruti Suzuki’s January 2020 car sales numbers look like this; overall number of cars sold is at 1,54,123 units, while the figure stood at 1,51,721 units for January 2019.

While coming to specific models, the Eeco recorded a 61% increase, selling 12,324 this year in January compared to 7,634 in 2019. Dzire, one of the most popular models from the company, sold 47% higher numbers and another popular model, the Wagon R also saw an increase of 41% and Swift 35%.

The car models that dropped in numbers in January 2020 in comparison to the first month of 2019 are XL6 – 69%; Ciaz-53%; S-Cross – 43%; Vitara Brezza – 26%; Ertiga – 25% and S-Presso – 17%.

Maruti may still feel there is a reversal in the trend however small, but none of the other auto majors, including Hyundai, Mahindra and Tata Motors have that luxury. They are still witnessing lowering of volumes across the board.