Toyota Yaris Launch in India: Honda City likely to lose more

Posted on April 27, 2018 Updated on April 27, 2018

Toyota Yaris’s launch with an aggressive pricing will surely disturb the status quo in Mid-size Sedan segment in India.

In this study, we will be analyzing who will be getting impacted most by Toyota’s new arrival. We will be taking top 3 players from mid-size sedan segment as these names occupy close to 85% market share in a relatively less crowded segment. The top 3 models include Honda City, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, and Hyundai Verna.

Honda City is by far the largest selling model of Honda in India, constituting 31% of company’s total sales (1Q-18). Hyundai Verna, launched in 3Q-17, has been the largest gainer in the segment. Its market share has picked to 29% in 1Q-18 from 6% in 1Q-17. Unlike Honda’s City, Hyundai’s reliance on the model is much less and Verna constituted just 9% of Hyundai’s total sales in India in 1Q-18.

Maruti Suzuki’s Ciaz was launched in 4Q-14. Given MSIL’s diverse small car portfolio, its reliance on Ciaz is minimal. We believe that any disruption by a new arrival will have little impact on it. A Ciaz facelift is also expected in August this year and this should help the model in capturing some lost ground. Ciaz’s market stood at 32% in Mid-size sedan segment in 1Q-18, down 560 bps vs. 1Q-17.

[Compare screen: PV Unit sales for top 3 models]

Given Honda’s reliance on City and time gap from now for its next-generation launch (2020), we suspect City to be the most vulnerable of the lot from Yaris aggressive launch. We understand that City has a loyal customer base. However, recent onslaught of the launches dented its market share.  

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