In 2024, Tata Punch sold 2 lakh vehicles; Maruti Suzuki had 1.9 lakh Wagon R retails.
India’s top-selling car does not feature the Maruti Suzuki brand for the first time in forty years. To rank among the top-selling cars in the country in 2024, Tata Motors’ sub-compact SUV, The Punch, outperformed Maruti Suzuki’s Wagon R and Swift. Selling nearly 2.02 lakh Tata Punch in 2024, Tata Motors exceeded Wagon R, which sold 1.91 lakh automobiles. Three of the top five sold cars in the country 2024 were SUVs.
Looking at the calendar year 2024 performance, Shailesh Chandra, MD, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles LTD. and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility LTD. pointed out that strong development in the SUV segment and consistent traction for emission-friendly powertrains will help the PV sector to reach a sales volume of 4.3 million units.
Beginning in 2021, Punch developed an all-new sub-4 m SUV category using its SUV design, upright posture, 190 mm ground clearance, and commanding driving position in a 3.8-metre footprint.
This part is shown to be the ideal replacement for possible Maruti Swift buyers, depending on footprint. With these features, Tata Punch started monthly sales of more than 10,000 units and rose to be the tenth most-sold vehicle in 2022.
Hyundai and Tata have almost identical sales footprints; the Exter and Punch are exactly matched regarding footprint, features, and price range. But in 2024, the Hyundai Exter might not generate even half of the volume of Tata Punch.
The largest reasonably priced carmaker in India, Maruti Suzuki, finds this shift towards premium vehicles to be a litmus test. Few SUV options from Maruti Suzuki’s portfolio hurt their market share, especially at a price higher than Rs 10 lakh.
Considering this: Before the outbreak, the Indian industry had its biggest year ever, with 33.49 lakh car sales in 2018. With 52 percent of the Indian market share, Maruti sold more cars than all of its competitors taken all together. And from Maruti’s consistency, the top five best-selling products were all from each other.
When the Indian industry reached another peak of over 42.86 lakh vehicle sales in the post-pandemic era, Maruti’s market share fell not only to 41 per cent but also lost the distinction of being India’s top-selling car in 2024.
With Premier Padmini being the second-best-selling product in India back then for roughly three decades following independence, Hindustan Motors’s Ambassador ranked highest in a duopoly.
But in years to come, the Maruti 800—a modern, durable, moderately priced car from Suzuki—took the top of the best-selling models in 1985. From strength to strength, Maruti-Suzuki dominated the next four decades even as deregulation brought markets open to other foreign competition.
After Maruti 800, Alto, its spiritual descendant, remained a great seller for 13 years, ranking third in 2011 with 3,11,367. That is the highest ever sales any car on the Indian market has shown in a calendar year.
But thanks to evolving legislation—that is, from BS IV to BS VI and the requirement for compulsory airbags—things changed rapidly after 2018.
From the sub-4m Dzire to the Swift premium hatchback to the tall-boy Wagon R, first place has been rotating among many Maruti automobiles. The top five list for 2024 emphasizes how the switch in SUV choice influences not only vehicle brands but also the models and market share.