Hyundai Venue BEATS Mahindra XUV300 to become India’s 2nd best selling sub-4 meter SUV

Hyundai launched the Venue on the 21st of May and the sub-4 meter SUV has already become quite popular in the market. Going by the sales figures for the month of May, the Hyundai Venue has beaten the Mahindra XUV300 to become the second best selling sub-4 meter SUV in the market. To let you know, The XUV300 dethroned the Tata Nexon from the number 2 spot in April but the launch of Venue has pushed its position back to third. Talking about numbers, Hyundai sold 7,049 units of the Venu in May while Mahindra sold 5,113 units of the XUV300 in the same duration.

The segment leader, as usual, is the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, which has been leading the charts since long. Surprisingly though, the sales of the Vitara Brezza fell by 44% compared to the sales in May last year. Maruti Suzuki sold 8,781 units of the Vitara Brezza in May 2019 while the same month in 2018 saw 15,629 units of the sub-4 meter SUV being taken from dealerships. The launch of the Hyundai Venue could be a factor here as both Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai are bitter competitors in the Indian market, both constituting nearly 70% of the country’s auto market.

However, the sales of the launch month of a vehicle don’t paint the real picture. Many of the buyers go for newly launched vehicles due to the hype around them along with the pride of driving around a car which no one has at that point of time. If Hyundai manages to retain the number two spot this month then that would mean that it is really getting a good response from buyers.

What other manufacturers might do now is to offer good discounts on their sub-4 meter SUVs. This could result in more interested buyers coming to the dealerships and eventually driving away with one of their vehicles. Talking about the Hyundai Venue, it starts at Rs. 6.50 lakh for the base petrol model and goes all the way up to Rs. 11.10 lakh (both prices ex-showroom, India). It is offered with three engine options, two of which are petrol while one is diesel. The petrol engines on the Venue are the 1.2 litre 4 cylinder, VTVT, naturally aspirated petrol unit while the other is a 1.0 litre, 3 cylinder turbocharged unit. The former has an output of 82 Bhp-115 Nm while the latter puts out 118 Bhp-172 Nm.

The diesel engine, on the other hand, is a 1.4 litre 4 cylinder, turbocharged unit that puts out a decent 89 Bhp of power and 220 Nm of torque. Speaking of gearbox options, the 1.4-litre petrol motor will get a 5-speed manual gearbox while the diesel will get a 6-speed manual unit. The 1.0-litre unit, however, gets a choice between either a 7-speed DCT unit or the 6-speed manual unit.