For The First Time In 40 Years, India’s Best-Selling Car Is No Longer A Maruti

Tata Motors has ended Maruti Suzuki’s 40-year reign as the maker of the country’s best-selling car. For the first time since the early 1980s, the title of India’s largest-selling car no longer belongs to Maruti, with Tata Motors’ subcompact SUV, the Tata Punch, emerging as the top-seller in 2024.

The Tata Punch has surpassed Maruti Suzuki’s popular models, including the Wagon R and Swift, to secure the top position in the country’s car sales rankings. Tata Motors sold over 2.02 lakh units of the Punch in 2024, compared to 1.91 lakh units of the Wagon R. Notably, three out of the top five best-selling cars in India this year were SUVs, a sign of the shifting preferences in the market.

It marks an important juncture in the Indian automobile market, where the growth of SUVs and luxury cars has finally started to encroach upon the long-held market share of economical hatchbacks that have been dominated by Maruti Suzuki.

SUVs Are The New Trend

While it has had an established footing in the market of affordable cars, the Maruti Suzuki brand feels pressure as its demand goes through increasing traction from the sales of SUVs above ₹10 lakh. While offering many types of cars, Maruti Suzuki was lagging in proper utilization of the boom of SUV sales and therefore took a dent in the share of the market.

The Indian auto market in 2018 turned out to be its best even before the start of the pandemic with sales for 33.49 lakh cars. In the period, Maruti commanded a resounding market share of 52% – with the top five best-selling cars coming from Maruti. Yet by 2024, that number had tumbled to 41% with the company also no longer capable of laying claims to the most-selling car.

A Look Back At Best-Selling Cars In India

The Indian car market has seen significant transformations over the decades. In the post-independence era, the Hindustan Motors Ambassador reigned as the top-selling car for nearly 30 years. However, this changed in 1985 with the introduction of the Maruti 800, a modern, reliable, and affordable vehicle that soon became the benchmark for success in the Indian market.

For the next four decades, Maruti was at the top of the Indian car sales charts. The Alto, Dzire, Swift, and Wagon R have topped the sales rankings year after year. Alto topped the charts for 13 years, reaching a record high of 3,11,367 units in 2011.

But with regulations changing and the preference of the customer towards premium and feature-rich vehicles, Maruti faced difficulties in sustaining its position.

Tata Punch: The Game-Changer In SUV Segment

The Tata Punch has been a game-changer for Tata Motors since its launch in 2021. The car, with an upright stance, 190mm of ground clearance, and commanding driver position, fits the bill of an SUV-like design that Indian buyers look for in a compact yet solid vehicle. The Punch, which is built on a sub-4-meter footprint, created a new sub-segment in the compact SUV space and, thus, made it an alternative hatchback like the Maruti Swift.

Due to its strong feature set and value proposition along with its competitive performance, Punch was an overnight success in the market. It was positioned as the 10th bestselling car in the year 2022 and later became the number one best-selling car in 2024 for Tata Motors by selling over 10,000 units every month.

Tata Motors’ performance in 2024 is a result of its winning strategy, wherein SUVs account for a huge chunk of the sales. MD of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd., Shailesh Chandra, said that Tata’s SUV portfolio grew by 19% in 2024, while Punch alone clocked over 200,000 units. The company recorded an all-time high of 565,000 units in overall sales, which was the fourth consecutive year of record sales for Tata Motors.

The multi-powertrain strategy of Tata has been successful as it has maintained the demand for emission-friendly vehicles. The company has positioned itself well in the competitive automotive market by catering to both traditional and environmentally-conscious buyers.

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