The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers revealed that one of every four cars in 2017 was an SUV. Not only are buyers obsessed with SUVs, but suppliers are also busy innovating their vehicles to look like SUVs on the road.
Step outside, and you will see every other person driving it. But what is the reason behind it? Why is there an SUV craze in the mind of every Indian driver? Here’s every detail.
The SUV Obsession In India:
According to Hyundai Motor, half a decade ago, almost every second car was a hatchback, but now that trend has changed to just one in four such cars while 50% of new sales are of SUVs.
The US and Europe have less than 50% sales of SUVs. So why have Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) been adapted as urban vehicles in India when they used to be only for off-road adventures?
One of the main reasons is that the road infrastructure in India is still lagging behind. Numerous road-traffic departments, having overlapping functions, have proved to become inefficient owing to a lack of coordination. The resulting existence of potholes and several poorly designed speed-breakers on the road, with no attention being given to vertebral and mechanical well-being, has made SUVs the preferred automobile.
Adding on, SUVs possess great ground clearance, which is the height between the vehicle’s bottom and the road. Hence, they are more comfortable to drive in such conditions, enabling easy navigation through uneven terrain, bumps and deep water.
Another important reason contributing to the SUV craze in India is the abundant room it offers.
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The Other Side Of The Picture:
The reduction in sales of Sedans and the increase in that of SUVs is not only because of the rise in the demand for the latter but also because of several other factors.
For example, carmakers are focussing more on the sales of SUVs by reducing their prices, even if that implies shedding most of the SUV’s proper characteristics. Hatchbacks have become more expensive due to new vehicle safety requirements.
Therefore, even the suppliers of entry-level sedans and premium hatchbacks are moving to SUVs. Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer of marketing and sales at Maruti Suzuki, said, “There is not only an increased preference for the body type, with the introduction of more compact models there is a price overlap between entry SUVs. Entry SUVs accounted for 22% of sales in the overall market (in 2022-23), up from 1% in 2014.”
Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director at Maruti Suzuki, said “Small cars are not selling not because people are upgrading. This has probably led to telescoping of the demand downward from this segment to used cars and even recently to two-wheelers.”
Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, said, “With increased access to credit, consumers starting their careers are not going for vehicles priced below Rs 10 lakh. Buyers migrating from two-wheelers to four-wheelers are seeing stress in disposable income, and also getting impacted by the hike in interest rates we have seen in the past one year.“
This tectonic shift in the Indian market for cars is also due to the concern for safety features offered by different car models. For example, Tata Nexon, the SUV produced by the giant Indian carmaker, Tata Motors was the first to achieve a five-star rating in international testing.
Whether this preference is going to continue for a long time or will people shift to other car models soon, is something to observe, based on the market trends, prices and innovations in features of different cars.
Sources: The Economic Times, The Economist, Business Standard
Find the blogger: Unusha Ahmad
This post is tagged under: SUVs, sedans, hatchbacks, automobile, Tata Motors, Tata Nexon, international, safety, five-star rating, Bank of Baroda, economist, Madan Sabnavis, two-wheelers, Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director, Maruti Suzuki, marketing, sales, speed breakers, US, Europe, India, Hyundai Motor
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