Thanks to a strong rebound of sales of its utility vehicles in June 2021, Mahindra & Mahindra has edged past Kia India in the UV segment, as well as the overall passenger segment by a narrow margin on 621 units in H1 CY21 sales.
As per data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), in the Jan-Jun 2021 period, Mahindra sold a total of 94,049 units, which includes 94,048 units of its range of UVs, and a single unit of the Verito compact passenger car. Kia ended H1 FY22 with total sales of 93,428 units.
The two companies have been going neck to neck in monthly sales through the first six months of the year, with Mahindra maintaining a slender lead over its Korean rival even at the end of Q1 CY21 by just 226 units.
Market share wise, Mahindra holds the edge with 16.43% in the UV segment, and 7.01% in the overall PV segment, against Kia’s 16.32% in UVs and 6.98% overall share.
Meanwhile, in June 2021, Mahindra accounted for a total of 16,636 units of UVs to Kia’s 15,015 units. For Mahindra, June resulted in a 115% growth MoM in total UV sales, over May’s 7,748 units. The dip was clearly due the prevailing market conditions owing to the pandemic. Kia, on the other hand, has been maintaining steady median sales of around 15,500 units every month between January and May 2021.
As per SIAM classifications, in the UVC segment, which looks at utility vehicles with length smaller than 4,000 mm and price under INR 20 lakh, Kia sold 5,963 units of the Sonet SUV, while Mahindra collectively sold 11,425 across its Bolero, KUV100, Thar and TUV300 models.
The only other segment where the two companies go head to head is the UV4 segment, which SIAM defines as one with vehicles priced between INR 20-30 lakh. In this segment, the Kia Carnival accounted for 503 units against Mahindra’s 16 units of the Alturas G4.
Overall growth in Q1
Once markets began to open up following easing-up of COVID-related restrictions, overall industry numbers started to look better.
Auto sector wholesales rebounded to 3,180,039 units in Q1 FY22, recording a triple-digit growth of 113%, against 1,492,612 units sold in the same quarter last year recovering from the lost volumes of April and May 2020. The industry, however, is nowhere near the pre-pandemic year when it sold a total of 6,084,478 units in Q1 FY20. Compared to that period, Q1 FY22 sales are down by 47.73%.
Data Source: SIAM