Suddenly competition is now shifting from the "compacts" segment of automobile industry to "Mid Size" segment.
Compact segment has witnessed high decibel noise from its major players like Maruti, Hyundai, GM and lately Ford and Nissan are also able to get themselves listed into the consideration set of the potential buyers. Volkswagen Polo is also knocking on the doors with its premium image in the market.
However it seems now the action is drifting towards the Mid-size segment. This segment was dominated by Honda City, which seems to be losing in a big way in this FY2010-11. From last year share of 16.44% (till Feb'10), it has gone down to 13.29%. Maruti with its Dezire and SX4 (and now Diesel version as well) has been able to just retain its share.
Major gainers are Toyota and Tata. Toyota with its newly launched Etios is already running much behind in its production capacity to meet the demand. But the real surprise is Tata, who had been able to revive the interest of the buyers with its Manza and able to achieve growth rate of 64% y.o.y (till Feb'2011). Toyota has been able to position itself nicely this time with Etios with the best price-value equation.
Now the biggest challenge is going to come from the biggest loser in this market i.e. Ford. Loss of market share was >5% (till Feb'11). Ikon was too old to catch the fancy of buyers and similarly Fiesta was the lone fighter from Ford stable and customers were too tired of this model also. Today customers want constant thrill, excitement, new featurers, high noise etc. and this was no more in Fiesta (even though its Diesel version is offering best mileage). Hence Ford decided to re-launch this model somewhere in the mid of current year.
Danger will be to Maruti, Tata and Toyota who are definitely going to lose share to Ford. Ford has taken more than 12 years to understand the Indian buying behaviour. Now it seems with Figo like positioning they can become the real threat. Let us watch out the fun in this segment....
