Maruti continues to hold sway in passenger vehicle segment

Maruti Suzuki India maintained its leadership position in the domestic passenger vehicle (PV) market in December, with six of its models featuring in the top 10 brands last month.

French car maker Renault’s entry level car Kwid also made it to the list last month.

According to the latest data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), in the top 10 best passenger vehicles, Maruti’s Alto retained the top position last month, with 22,589 units, as against 22,296 units in December, 2014.

The company’s compact hatchback Wagon R was the second best-selling model with 14,645 units compared with 12,329 units in the same month last year.

MSI’s premium hatchback Swift was third, selling 14,548 units, as against 17,410 units in the year ago month. Further, the company’s compact sedan DZire stood fourth with 13,176 units, as compared to 15,526 units a year ago.

Hyundai Motor India’s Grand i10 moved to the fifth slot with 12,749 units in December, from seventh in the same month in 2014 with 8,210 unit sales.

Maruti’s newly-launched Baleno made it to the sixth rank with sale of 10,572 units, dislodging Hyundai’s Elite i20 from the position.

Elite i20, however stood at seventh position last month with 10,379 units, as compared to 9,345 units in December 2014.

Maruti’s compact car Celerio was at eighth position, selling 8,019 units. It replaced Omni, which had sold 6,252 units in same period of 2014.

Mahindra & Mahindra’s Bolero continued to be in top ten at ninth position with a sale of 7,133 units. Renault’s entry level car Kwid made it to the top ten list with sale of 6,888 units in December.

Honda’s mid sized sedan City and Hyundai’s entry level model Eon were the noteworthy exclusions from the list last month.