A Swift Punch: India’s Best-Selling Car Is A Maruti, Again

A hatchback is once again India's best-selling car, amid an outsized demand for oversized cars.

The Maruti Suzuki Swift has dethroned the Tata Punch as India's best-selling car in the same month its latest iteration went on sale, according to data sourced from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

Sales of the hatchback rose 12% over the year earlier to 19,393 units in May 2024. Though volumes of the compact SUV surged 70% year-on-year, they still were the second highest.

That the Swift has reclaimed the top spot is noteworthy, for it shows that hatchbacks can't be written off amid burgeoning sales of SUVs in India. Maruti Suzuki believes hatchbacks are the way to go in a country that has among the lowest car penetration ratios in the world.

“With only 32 vehicles per 1,000 people, India presents a vast opportunity for automakers,” Hisashi Takeuchi, managing director of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., said at the launch of the fourth-generation Swift on May 9. “As car ownership rises, hatchbacks will serve as the entry point for many customers, and thus expand.”

Hatchbacks make up nearly a third of India's passenger vehicle market. Maruti Suzuki enjoys more than 60% market share in the segment.

But in May 2024, SUV sales surged 26.9% year-on-year to 2,13,462 units, even as those of compact cars fell 13% from the year-ago period, according to SIAM data. In May 2023, their volumes were nearly equal at 1,68,178 and 1,63,619 units, respectively. That gap has now widened, so much so that SUVs now command nearly 60% of incremental sales.

Maruti Suzuki is thus sitting on a pile of small cars, as there are few takers. 

As on May 31, India's largest carmaker had an unsold inventory of 1.68 lakh cars—or 35-36 days of buffer stock. It manufactured 1.93 lakh units last month. Those figures far exceeded the 1.57 lakh units sold. And while its SUVs—Brezza, Grand Vitara, Fronx and Ertiga—enjoy waiting periods, its breadwinner cars—the Alto K10, S-Presso, Celerio, etc.—are finding few takers. That prompted the company to launch a special edition—a first in nearly four decades of operations—to clear stock.

The all-new Swift, Maruti Suzuki believes, is the catalyst for a turnaround.

In less than a month since launch, the fourth-generation of the hatchback has received over 40,000 bookings for just the petrol variant on sale. While the CNG powertrain is some time away, Maruti Suzuki believes that will only add to incremental sales.

“The new Swift is already our best-selling model,” Partho Banerjee, the head of sales and marketing at Maruti Suzuki, said during a sales call on May 1. “The CNG variant will be out in a few months. That should shore up our volumes further.”

Developed at an investment of Rs 1,450 crore, the fourth-generation Swift is powered by an all-new 1,200-cc three-cylinder engine that makes 82 BHP of power. The car, which returns about 25 km/litre, gets six airbags as standard. It's being produced at the company's Gujarat facility. Prices start at Rs 6.49 lakh, ex-showroom India.