Maruti Suzuki beats Mahindra & Mahindra to become India's largest utility vehicle maker, thanks to these 2 cars

Maruti Suzuki pipped Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and overtook first spot to become India's largest utility vehicle (UV) maker in May.

The two cars which zoomed Maruti Suzuki to number 1 post are Brezza and Ertiga MPV.

Vitara Brezza and Ertiga MPV received great demand as Maruti Suzuki sold 5,500 more SUVs than Mahindra & Mahindra in the first two months of FY18.

As per the industry figures, M&M sold 18,363 units in April and 19,331units in May, compared with 20,638 units in April for Maruti and 22,608 units in May.

During the launch of Vitara Brezza, Kenichi Ayukawa, MD of Maruti Suzuki, had said the company wants to dominate in the compact SUV space.

RC Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki, said, “I am not surprised by the numbers we have been able to generate in the utility vehicle segment, but I will not read too much in the leadership in utility vehicle segment. It is clear that if you make a good product and offer right quality and features, people will choose your product.”

Maruti Suzuki is selling more than 10,000 units of Vitara Brezza every month and has over 50,000 bookings.

Meanwhile, Mahindra’s attempt to retain its top spot through KUV 100, TUV 300, Nuvo Sport and Bolero Plus have not yielded fruits.

Rajan Wadhera, president for the automotive sector at Mahindra & Mahindra, told ET the buyers of Maruti's high-selling UVs - the Brezza or the Ertiga - are not the consumers who would otherwise have bought a Mahindra SUV. Both the Brezza and Ertiga, Wadhera said, have created their own space.

"With the size of base of the market expanding, the market leader is bound to lose some share. External factors such as the court's stand against diesel and large SUVs also hurt us. And this also led to increasing demand for petrol SUVs,” Wadhera told ET.