India seems to be obsessed with compact vehicles, as in May 2014, Maruti Swift Dzire has emerged the top selling car in the domestic market with 18,953 units sold in May toppling its petite sibling Alto at 17,311 units. Ruling at the top slot for a long time, Alto has finally been outnumbered by the compact sedan, Dzire implying at sudden shift in interest of customers from affordable hatchbacks to frugal compact sedans. Other vehicles from Maruti Suzuki India including flagship Swift and Alto stood at number two and number three spot respectively.
The compact sedan segment has been inducted in India a while ago, however initially it did not have many options and as a result customers did not pay much attention to it. Over the year a number of vehicles have been added to this exponentially growing segment like Honda Amaze, Hyundai’s new Xcent, Toyota Etios and Mahindra Verito. Tata is also readying to launch its contemporary Zest compact sedan in India within a couple of months that is also been seen as a strong contender in the CS segment. Honda also received an overwhelming response for its first compact sedan offered in both diesel and petrol variants. The company sold a whopping 88,000 units of Amaze within one year of its launch in India. On the other hand Verito and Etios are preferred vehicle in taxi segment because of their frugal nature.
The reason for preferring hatchbacks over compact sedans could be the presence of ample features and space that lure customers to opt for the latter. Hence customers are willing to pay more.
