Wheels of change

Maruti Suzuki needs to up its game as it faces headwinds over the bread and butter models

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In the last few years, India's passenger car market has been skewing towards bigger and more aspirational automobiles, especially sports utility vehicles (SUV). The trend has accentuated in 2024-25 in a market that grew by an anaemic 3%. The SUV and multi-utility vehicle (MUV) segments grew in low-teens but hatchbacks and sedans were less in demand. The share commanded by SUVs, in the overall market, went up to nearly 55% in 2024-25 from just over 50% in the previous year. In contrast, the share of sedans fell to 23.5% from 27.7% in 2023-24; hatchbacks gave up 120 basis points to retain a share of just 7.9%.