Carmakers Witness Demise Of Their Key Models In CY 2020

Avishek Banerjee Dec 31, 2020

Circa 2010 was when the Indian passenger vehicle market saw an avalanche of launches by more than a dozen global auto biggies. A decade later, the domestic market saw the phaseouts of multiple products that were either dated or were reaching the end of its life cycle. While turbulent market conditions, credit squeeze, GST rates, EV push by the government were already dampening the fortunes of the low-volume- model, the implementation of BS-VI emission norms in April’20 has proved to be the final nail in the coffin for several aging, outmoded and struggling models. The Covid-induced slowdown further exacerbated the already-beleaguered domestic auto market. Maruti Suzuki India Limited, which sells every second car in the country, canned the production of its old warhorse Gypsy, Alto K10 compact car and microvan Omni. Hyundai India also discontinued some of the models like Xcent, Santa Fe, Grand i10 even before the BS-VI emission norms and Covid had set in.

Tata Motors also replaced its Zest compact sedan and Bolt hatchback with Tigor and Tiago respectively apart from stopping the production of Sumo Grande and Safari Storme. While Maruti Suzuki person spokesperson was unavailable for comments, no responses could be elicited from Hyundai India spokesperson. Tata Motors spokesperson, when contacted by BW Businessworld maintained, “We would like to clarify that there were no phase outs in 2020, infact the year 2020 has been a year of BS6. We launched our ‘New Forever’ range of vehicles in January 2020. The planning and preparation for the transition to BS6 began two years back. So our previous generation of vehicles were discontinued much earlier (2019) in the transition to BS6, on the back of product refreshments, replacement cycles, keeping in mind the market evolution and customer needs.”

Many of the Japanese carmakers (apart from Maruti Suzuki) are find it tough to sustain itself and are removing even small cars from its product portfolio. For Example, Nissan Motor India phased out its Micra hatchback (both first and second generations) in addition to Sunny sedan and Terrano SUV. Its Compatriot Honda phased out its Brio hatchback followed by BR-V SUV, Mobilio MPV, Civic sedan and CR-V premium SUV. Toyota Kirloskar Motors also did away with its made-for-India Etios range (hatchback, Sedan and Cross versions) in addition to D-segment sedan Corolla Altis. Confirming the development, Honda Cars India spokesperson stated, “Due to the stoppage of production in Greater Noida Unit, there will be no production of CR-V and Civic as both these models cannot be made in Tapukara plant which was conceived as an integrated plant with high efficiency to produce small and mid-size cars.

Toyota spokesperson maintained, “At TKM, we always study and evaluate the market continues to understand customer preferences and trends. This also applies to cases when we have to discontinue an existing model to vacate plant capacity for advanced and better technologies to come in. In order to service the needs of our customers, we are now offering Yaris and Glanza in BS6 avatar against the discontinued Liva and Etios respectively. Apart from the Etios series, we will also be discontinuing the Corolla Altis, having seen a conscious shift in customer preferences from mid-size sedan (segment) to MPVs.”

“Car manufacturers have completely juggled their product portfolios in last two years. This led to the end of life for many iconic products like Maruti Suzuki Omni but on other side this led to filtration of products that are safer, cleaner and in tune to present regulations. Changing fuel mix pattern also was a reason which forced OEMs to reevaluate their model lie up. I think this exercise was also a reflection of the auto industry is going through a mammoth transformation in India as well as globally. There is no doubt the next decade of mobility would be a completely different world, “avers Puneet Gupta, Director IHS Markit. While nearly 50 models and variants got off the production line from existing carmakers, there have been even struggling brands like GM, Fiat, Mitsubishi (not formally announced) who have discontinued its entire line up and have exited the domestic market. Many global brands, which were keen to foray into India, may even drop its plans eventually.

“Specific models are getting discontinued for two reasons. [1] They have lost consumer relevance as in case of mid-sized / executive sedans and large petrol SUVs. [2] A maturing but depressed market not really growing as fast as it should to allow space for niche segments to operate,” says Avik Chattopadhyay, Co-Creator Expereal, a brand consultancy firm.