A popular cars usually means a waiting period that runs into many months. However, car makers are now more responsive than ever before, and are working hard to increase production to meet demand. Today, we’ll check out 5 super popular cars and SUVs whose waiting periods will soon drop.
Hyundai Creta
The Creta is India’s best selling SUV, ever. Now, that’s something that doesn’t happen everyday or even perhaps every year. So, the huge demand for the compact SUV could have taken Hyundai by surprise too. Some variants of the Creta have had waiting periods of up to 10 months, which has now reduced to 3 months. Even this could change come June 2016, as Hyundai will ramp up the SUV’s production to 12,500 units/month. While 10,000 units/month are meant for India, the rest of the SUVs will head towards export markets.
Maruti Baleno
Maruti is sitting on about 80,000 bookings for the Baleno, India’s latest B+ segment premium hatchback. The waiting period for certain variants of the Baleno is about 6 months, and Maruti doesn’t want the waiting period to exceed 6 months even as demand shows no signs of ebbing. To do this, Maruti is planning to produce many more Baleno hatchbacks each month from its Manesar production facility. Once this happens, the Baleno’s waiting period is likely to come down to a more manageable time period.
Renault Kwid
The Kwid is the biggest success that Renault has ever had in India. The French automaker will launch new variants of the Kwid, one with a larger engine ,and the other with a larger engine and an AMT option. Currently, Renault is sitting on over 90,000 bookings for the entry-level hatchback, which competes with the Maruti Alto and Hyundai Eon.
Some variants of the Kwid have waiting times of 12 months in certain parts of India. To reduce wait times, Renault has planned a production increase of the car at its Oragadam factory. In the next 3-6 months, the French automaker will increase production of the Kwid, from the current 5,000-6,000 units/month to 8,000-10,000 units/month.
Mahindra KUV100
It’s barely a month since the the KUV100 has been in the market, and the Micro SUV is already commanding wait times of up to 3 months. Mahindra’s been surprised, for 50 % of the demand is for the petrol engined variants of the KUV. The automaker produces the Micro SUV at its Chakan factory, which will soon begin producing more units of the KUV. Mahindra has plans of increasing KUV production to 8,500 units/month from the current 5,500 units/month over the next few months.
Mahindra TUV300
The TUV300 is an all-new vehicle that is seeing good demand as well. Ever since its launch, the sub-4 meter vehicle has beaten the Ecosport in terms of sales, and is currently the best selling compact SUV in the country. It also helps that the TUV300 gets a diesel automatic option. Quite rugged due to its ladder frame chassis, the TUV has a waiting period of 4-6 weeks, depending on the variant chosen. Current production at Chakan stands at 4,000 units/month, and Mahindra has plans of increasing it to further reduce waiting periods.