Amidst all the gloom in the automobile sector, Hyundai Motor India has found some cheer. The country’s second-largest car manufacturer has been able to increase its market share in July to 19.4 percent. This is the largest share of India’s car market that Hyundai has ever been able to command. That it comes at a time the market is depressed means that overall volumes are of course lower than previous year levels for the sector.

Yet if you make simplistic percentage correlations, Hyundai lost only 3.8 percent sales in July 2019 at 57,310 units over the same month in the previous year; while market leader Maruti Suzuki saw a much more drastic 35.1 percent year-on-year drop in sales. Hyundai has traditionally held on to between 17 and 18 percent of the market for the past several years. It’s the first time it’s share has crossed 19 percent.

SS Kim, MD, Hyundai Motor India said, “We have maintained the sales momentum and grew to 1.7% in FY 18-19 vis-a-vis FY 17-18. We sold 5,45,243 units in the domestic market and exported 1,62,105 units in FY 18-19. In July 2019, with the tremendous response for Venue, we sold close to 39000 units, out of which 9585 units sold were of Venue. Despite current market challenges, Hyundai has been the only brand to maintain its leadership position and has increased its market share by 3% registering 19.4% market share in July 2019.”

H1 data released by Jato Dynamics suggests that Maruti saw its market share erode marginally to settle at 51.07 percent in the first half of 2019 when compared to H1 2018 when it held 51.57 percent of India’s car bazaar. Others who also saw their share drop are Tata Motors (down from 6.49 to 5.90 percent) and Ford (down from 3.07 to 2.66 percent).

The Tata Tigor and Zest, and Ford EcoSport have been draggers for the respective manufacturers as competition has driven customers elsewhere. Ironically the drag for Maruti off late is coming from the Vitara Brezza – a Diesel-only best selling model that’s been hurt by Maruti’s apparent stance to drop smaller displacement diesels from April 1 2020. Hyundai meanwhile has benefitted at its expense as it’s new Venue subcompact SUV that rivals the Vitara Brezza has two petrol engine options and has now emerged as the market leader in its segment. The Mahindra XUV300 also offers petrol and has therefore benefitted.

Hyundai is also expected to see a small surge in compact hatchback sales as its new generation Grand i10 Nios drives in alongside the outgoing model which will stay on in the market for some months. It’s Creta continues to perform well and while it may take a slight hit as the Kia Seltos comes to market, Hyundai will pad up for the second generation Creta launch in 2020.