The automobile sector is globally undergoing through rough patches and even the top seeded players in this sectors have to either suffer from big losses or face sharp decline in the sales figure. Tata Motors the biggest commercial vehicle producer in India has to keep its unit close for more than 20 days in the last 2 months. Maruti Udyog the biggest player in passenger car segment has to follow the same strategy.
The picture across the border of India is even more dismal. Industry-wide, automakers sold 896,124 new cars, minivans and trucks in December, a drop of 36 percent compared with December 2007, according to preliminary data released yesterday by the industry research firm Autodata.
But in this bearish market situation there is something interesting to learn from the marketers of India. While sale of Trucks, Cars, SUV and commercial vehicles are at historic low figures, SUVs in India are still ruling the roads.
Last month when Ford USA witnessed record 60% less what is usually does Toyota SUV sales declined by 38% . But OEMs in India have different ballgame to play to boost their sales. Instead of pushing their smaller car segment Indian players put their weight on pushing sales of premium SUV cars with price range of above 13 Lakhs. The SUV manufacturers came up newer model each better than the previous one, marketed themselves at among right audience and managed to bring home envious sales figure.
What made the SUV sales in India possible? Dilip Chenoy, director general of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), an agency that tracks auto sales, feels the SUVs sold here are very different from the ones being shunned abroad. He says, the SUVs in India are not Gas Guzzlers. Here SUVs are manufactured to make it inexpensive, very small and low capacity vehicles, mainly crossovers. Manufacturers even keep the fuel efficiency factor in mind while making the sales pitch.
The recent trend in the sales of SUV are actually promoting dealers to get dealership of SUVs of leading players like Tata, Mahindra & Mahidra, Honda, etc. The increasing number of dealership is also giving boost to SUV sales as this dealers are good channel of promotion of Sports Utility Vehicles in India. The tough driving conditions and large space are making these SUVs popular as big Family Utility Vehicle in India.
Seeing the positive growth in demand of SUVs in India, even at this time when the global market is showing huge drop down in sales figure, Indian OEMs are launching new SUV models in India. Some of the most awaited upcoming models in Indian market are Mahindra Xylo, Toyata Fortuner, New Nissan X-Trail and Tata Indicruz.
It would be interesting to watch the competition between these new models. The market is actually tough. Though in the past month sales figure for SUVs in India has actually skyrocketed in comparison to the past. But it is still a great challenge for manufacturers to retain the sales graph. One of the biggest auto market in world, India may see more SUVs rolling the roads than ever, in the coming few months.