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B-segment zips past Maruti 800

Partha Ghosh

The gap between the A and B segments of the car market widened in the first four months of the year to leave the A-segment (comprising the Maruti 800) less than half the size of the fast-growing B-segment.

In the January-April 2002 period, the share of the A-segment fell to 23.2 per cent from 29.6 per cent in 2001. On the other hand, the B-segment - comprising the Zen, Santro, Indica, WagonR and Palio, among others - grew from 53.4 per cent in 2001 to 59.2 per cent in January-April 2002.

In the year 2000, the share of the A-segment was 28.7 per cent as compared to the B-segment's share of 52.8 per cent. Data sourced from the industry reveals that the C-segment has largely remained unchanged. From 18.4 per cent in 2000, its share fell to 16.3 per cent in 2001. But in the first four months of 2002, the C-segment's share of the total car market remained at 16.4 per cent.

"The decline in sales in the A-segment is translating into volumes for the B-segment, while the C- and D-segments have largely remained the same. It is natural that the new cars in the B-segment will eat into the A-segment volumes. But even today, the Maruti 800 remains the largest selling car model in the Indian market," an automobile analyst with a foreign bank says.

Between January and April 2002, 41,814 Maruti 800s were sold as compared to the 59,025 sold in the corresponding period of 2001 and 56,120 in 2000.

The share of the C-segment--comprising the Accent, Esteem, Corsa, Astra and Lancer, among others--has, however, remained the same. In the first four months of the year, the C-segment had a 16.4 per cent share of the total market, compared to 16.3 per cent in the whole of 2001 and 18.4 per cent in 2000.

Total car sales for the four-month period stood at 180,407, as compared to 170,333 in the corresponding period last year--a growth of 7.6 per cent. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the automobile industry association, says it is hoping the industry will grow 10 per cent during the year.

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