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For the first time in 40 years, India’s largest-selling car did not carry the Maruti Suzuki logo. Punch, the subcompact SUV from Tata Motors, edged out Maruti Suzuki’s Wagon R and Swift to become the country’s largest-selling car in 2024.
Tata Motors sold over 2.02 lakh units of Tata Punch in 2024, overtaking the Wagon R, which sold 1.91 lakh units.
What is telling is that three out of the top five selling cars in the country were SUVs. Within the segment, Maruti Suzuki Ertiga – the number 1 SUV brand of 2023 – slipped to number 4.
India’s shift towards premium cars is turning out to be a litmus test for Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest affordable car maker.
Limited SUV options, especially at a price above Rs 10 lakh, impacted Maruti Suzuki’s market share.
Consider this: In 2018, before the pandemic, the Indian industry had its best year ever, with 33.49 lakh car sales. With 52% of the Indian market’s share, Maruti sold more cars than all its competitors combined. And the top five best-selling products were all from Maruti’s stable.
In 2024, when the Indian industry reached another peak of about 42.86 lakh car sales in the post-pandemic era, Maruti’s market share not only fell to 41%, but had also lost the distinction of supplying India’s best-selling car.
In the post-independence era, Hindustan Motors’ Ambassador held the number one position for nearly three decades in a duopoly; Premier’s Padmini was the second best-selling product in India then.
But in 1985, a modern, reliable, and affordable offering from Suzuki, the Maruti 800, took over the crown of best-selling car for years to come. The next four decades were of Maruti-Suzuki growing from strength to strength in India, even when the market was opened to other foreign rivals in the post-90s liberalization era.
History of Best-selling cars in India
After Maruti 800, its spiritual successor, Alto, remained a best seller for 13 years, reaching the highest sales of 3,11,367 in 2011. That’s the highest ever sales achieved by any car in the Indian industry in a calendar year.
However, after 2018, things changed rapidly due to evolving regulations—e.g., the transition from BS IV to BS VI, and the call for mandatory airbags.
The number one position has been shifting among several Maruti products, from the sub-4m Dzire to the Swift premium hatchback to the tall-boy Wagon R. The 2024 top five list underlines how the shift in choice to SUVs has impacted not only vehicle brands but also the models and market share.
Reviewing the calendar year 2024 performance, Shailesh Chandra, MD, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd. and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd. said the PV industry is expected to touch a sales volume of 4.3 million units, with strong growth in the SUV segment and sustained traction for emission-friendly powertrains.
“For Tata Motors, CY24 was the fourth consecutive year of highest-ever annual sales with 565,000 units sold. We registered strong growth in our SUV portfolio with successful product introductions built on our proven multi-powertrain strategy. SUV volumes grew by 19%, with Punch selling over 200,000 units, allowing it to emerge as the highest-selling car model in India in CY24.”
Launched in 2021, Punch, with its proper SUV silhouette, upright stance, 190 mm ground clearance, and commanding driver position in a 3.8-metre footprint, created an all-new sub-segment in the sub-4 m SUV category.
Based on footprint, this segment is turning out to be an ideal alternative for prospective buyers of hatchbacks like the Maruti Swift. With these attributes, Tata Punch started selling over 10,000 units a month and became the 10th best-selling car in 2022.
In terms of footprint, features, and price point, the Exter and Punch are equally matched; Hyundai and Tata have nearly similar sales footprints. However, the Hyundai Exter could not deliver even half the volume of the Tata Punch in 2024.
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