With good response to its recently launched new Verna, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) has regained the top slot in the mid-size sedan segment during September.

This segment has been dominated by Maruti Ciaz in the past few quarters followed by the Honda City.

Hyundai dominated this segment from 2011 to early 2014.

Verna’s sales in September stood at 6,053 units when compared with 5,603 units of Maruti Ciaz and 6,010 units of Honda City.

Bookings number

Bookings for the new Verna launched on August 22 stand at about 16,000 units as of now.It comes in 1.6 litre petrol and diesel engine variants with both manual and automatic transmissions.

Some 3-4 years ago, Hyundai’s diesel fuelled Fluidic Verna helped it gain a march over Honda City. But with customer shift to petro variants in this segment during 2013 and launch of fourth generation new Honda City with both in petrol and diesel variants, Hyundai slipped.

Maruti Suzuki rolled out the Ciaz in October 2014 and it competitively priced Ciaz against Honda City by availing incentives under FAME and lower excise duty for mild-hybrid technology. Ciaz dominated the segment in the past two quarters.

“ At present, petrol version accounts for 40 per cent of new Verna’s sales against 20 or 30 per cent earlier,” said a senior official of HMIL.

Related Topics