Who wants small car when big tires rule the roads

Two decades ago the humble Maruti 800 was everyone’s favourite car in India. This car was the craze among middle class families. People affectionately called it ‘Marooti’. It was a car with high mileage and low maintenance. In case of any breakage on the way it was easy to find a mechanic almost everywhere. Families traveled to the sea, mountains, forests and across India in their Maruti. Then came the era of big cars and multiple brands. People got overwhelmed with the variety of cars and models. Now the buyers prefer utility vehicles (UVs) instead of small cars. The reason for this change is that the tires of these vehicles are bigger which provide better grip even on slippery roads due to high ground clearance. Apart from this, long distance driving can be done comfortably with these cars. Compared to these, SUVs tend to be expensive. Apart from this, these days with the advent of new companies and new models, the trend is getting in favour of utility vehicles. While there were hardly 11 models of utility vehicles in 2002 in the country, in 2020 the models of these vehicles increased to 68.
 
A report by rating agency Crisil shows that the share of utility vehicles in India's passenger vehicles has gone up to 48 per cent in the first nine months of the current financial year, from 15 per cent two decades ago. It is another matter that in those days neither there were many options nor did people see a special need for such vehicles. The market share of utility vehicles has grown by 33 per cent in the last 20 years. The graph of utility vehicles is expected to increase till the year 2026. This segment will grow by 18 per cent every year. Popular utility vehicles in India include Creta, Nexon, XUV300, Seltos, Brezza, Sonet, Magnite, Kaiger etc. According to Crisil, the small car segment registered a growth of 7 per cent between 2009 and 2019, while the growth of utility vehicles was 16 per cent year-on-year in the same period.
 
In February, there was a 7 per cent decline in car sales and 27 per cent in two-wheeler sales on a year-on-year basis. In February last year, 2,81,380 cars were sold, but this February only 2,62,984 cars were sold. Similarly, where the sales of two-wheelers stood at 14,26,865 in February 2021, in February this year, only 10,37,994 vehicles were sold, much less than this. In contrast, the sales of SUV and MUV category of vehicles have continued to grow. If 1,14,350 utility vehicles were sold in February last year, their sales increased to 1,20,122 in February this year. The auto industry is distressed due to the Ukraine war. The industry faced a huge shortage of semiconductor chips in the last few months, which adversely affected production and supply. Then Russia attacked on Ukraine, which started affecting the supply of raw materials, especially many metals used in vehicle manufacturing. The supply of metals was mainly from Russia and Eastern European countries, which is now getting hampered. Due to the increase in raw material cost by 25 per cent, the cost of vehicles is also increasing.

(Author is a senior journalist and columnist)