Hyundai Creta sales milestones
The last 1,00,000 unit sales have come in just eight month, with the Creta having crossed the 5 lakh -unit sales mark in August 2020. It’s a creditable achievement for the country’s bestselling SUV because the past year has been impacted by COVID-19-induced lockdowns and poor market sentiment.
The 6 lakh-unit sales milestone has come in 70 months or a little under six years. As per our sister publication Autocar Professional’s statistics, a total of 6,06,743 Cretas have been sold in India since its launch on July 21, 2015.
The diesel variant accounts for 3,99,787 units – or 66 percent – of total Creta sales, while the petrol Creta has been bought by 2,06,956 buyers, who constitute the remaining 34 percent of sales. The robust demand for the diesel Creta, powered by the 1.5-litre US CRDI, remains undiminished and unlike some carmakers, who have gone slow on diesel power, Hyundai is benefiting from its diesel drive.
Second-gen Creta gives sales a new charge
Surging demand for the new Creta has only furthered what the first-generation Creta achieved. Despite the COVID-19-induced loss of sales, particularly in the early part of financial year (FY) 2021, the second-generation model, which was launched on March 16, 2020, has logged sales of 1,39,204 units in the 14 months, till April 2021, and remains the bestselling utility vehicle in India. Rolled out at an introductory price of Rs 9.99 lakh (ex-showroom), the new Creta is available in five engine-gearbox configurations and five trim levels.
Interestingly, over 20 percent of sales of the new Creta have come from automatic powertrain options – 1.5-litre MPi petrol (6MT/IVT), 1.5-litre U2 CRDi diesel (6MT/6AT) and the 1.4-litre Kappa Turbo GDi petrol (7DCT). Over 51 percent of India sales are from the higher-spec SX and SX(O) trims and there’s over 60 percent sales contribution from the 1.5-litre U2 CRDi BS6 diesel-powered variants.
The impact of the new Creta’s sales is felt on the overall SUV segment’s performance in India. In FY2021, the SUV segment crossed the million-units sales milestone for the first time – 10,60,750 – and the Creta contributed 1,20,035 units or 11 percent to total UV sales last fiscal.
