Volkswagen's Ameo feels the heat of competition as sales slide 63% in September

Ameo is the cheapest in the C1 segment being priced at Rs 5.14 lakh. Even the top variant at Rs 6.91 lakh of Ameo is priced significantly lower than its competitors.

Volkswagen Passenger Cars India Director Michael Mayer and Board Member for sales and marketing Jurgen Stackmann during the launch of Volkswagen `Ameo` in New Delhi on Feb 2, 2016. Photo: IANS

Volkswagen's specially built car for the Indian market, Ameo, does not seem to having a good ride in India in the three months since its launch in June this year. The compact sedan saw a 62.7% decline as its sales slid to 1,491 units in September from 2,427 units a month earlier, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Ameo in the first month of sales in July clocked in an impressive 2,200 units. This grew to a little higher in August to finally see a large drop in sales in September.

The car is placed in the highly competitive C1 sedan segment which has successful cars such as Hyundai Xcent, Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire, Honda Amaze and Ford Figo Aspire. However, Ameo was the cheapest in the C1 segment being priced at Rs 5.14 lakh. Even the top variant at Rs 6.91 lakh of Ameo is priced significantly lower than its competitors.

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The Hyundai Xcent is priced at Rs 7.45 lakh, Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire is at Rs 7.24 lakh, Honda Amaze is at Rs 7.78 lakh, Tata Zest at Rs 6.85 lakh and Ford Figo Aspire at Rs 7.72 lakh. The C1 segment consists of sedans priced below Rs 8 lakh.

For instance, Maruti Suzuki Dzire saw a large 20.3% growth in sales in September from the previous month and stood at 18,961 units from the sales of 15,766 units in August. While Honda Amaze saw a 15% month on month growth in its sales in September to 2,861 units, Ford Figo Aspire on the other hand saw its sales double to 2,613 units in September.

Tata Indigo Manza in the C1 segment too saw a good growth of 33.3% in September as sales grew to 2,260 units from 1,696 units in August. Toyota Etios too saw an 11.3% growth in sales in September to account for 2,784 units from 2,501 units in August.

Despite repeated attempts to reach out to Volkswagen, it did not respond.

Overall, the C1 segment saw a growth of 12.05% in September from the previous month as it accounted for 37,394 units in sales from 33,372 units in August.

However, Ameo was not the only one to see its sales slide in September, but competitors such as Hyundai Xcent, Mahindra Verito, Nissan Sunny, Renault Scala, Tata Zest and Chevrolet Sail saw sales decline.

Hyundai Xcent sales dipped by 9.7% in September to 3,986 units from 4,316 units in August. While Mahindra Verito saw 1.8% decline in sales, Nissan Sunny fell by 61.2%, Renault Scala declined by 35.5%, Tata Zest was down by 10.4% and Chevrolet Sail declined by 4.7%.

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