With Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s (MSIL) mid-size sedan ‘Ciaz’ getting discontinued from the market, the total sales of the segment is going to decline further from the already dwindling sales.
The total wholesales (dispatches to dealers) of the mid-size sedan market declined to 51,171 units in April to February 2024-25, a year-on-year (y-o-y) decline of 30 per cent as compared with 73,108 units in the same period in the previous fiscal year.
In terms of production also, it declined to 1,90,517 units during the period as against 2,18,528 units in April-February 2023-24, the latest monthly data shared by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) indicated.
The dispatches in February though had increased marginally y-o-y to 5,030 units as compared with 4,974 units in February 2024, mainly due to Maruti Ciaz, which the analysts said was due to the manufacturer clearing the older stocks.
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The wholesale of Ciaz increased to 1,097 units in February as compared with 481 in February 2024. Other competitors like Honda City and Hyundai’s Verna sales declined during the month. For instance, Honda City’s wholesales declined to 889 units as compared with 1,184 units in February last year, and Hyundai Verna’s dispatches declined to 1,207 units in February as compared with 1,678 units in the corresponding month last year. Apart from these two, Volkswagen’s Virtus which also competes in the market shown growth during the month to 1,837 units as compared with 1,631 units in February 2024.
While, MSIL has not officially confirmed about the discontinuation of the Ciaz, sources said the drop in sales over the last couple of years plus competition from new comers like Skoda Slavia and Volkswagen Virtus which led the company to think it was a right decision. Launched in 2014 as a replacement for the SX4, MSIL had last updated the model in 2018.
When contacted about the discontinuation of Ciaz, a spokesperson at MSIL, told businessline, “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on conjecture regarding our product plans.”
Sources said another reason could be that the new Dzire (compact sedan) has more features including a sunroof, and five-star rating for safety (for adult and four-star child occupant), six airbags as standard and ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems), compared to the Ciaz in the current portfolio, so there could be a cannibalisation too.
“Although Maruti Ciaz’s sales were already low there would be an erosion of the share of the mid-size sedan in the overall passenger cars sales in the coming months,” a Delhi-based market expert told businessline.
The Maruti Suzuki Ciaz was also part of most of the government fleet (used by Ministers/ Bureaucrats and Defence) vehicles in the country. The sedan segment’s demand is already down because of consumers changing their preferences towards the sports utility vehicles (SUVs), the analysts said.
For instance, the passenger cars’ wholesales declined by 4.3 per cent y-o-y to 1,10,966 units in February as compared with 1,15,937 units in February last year, while that of utility vehicles grew by 9.1 per cent y-o-y to 2,08,795 units during the month against 1,91,435 units in February 2024, the SIAM data indicated.
