India's passenger vehicle market reached a record 4,218,750 domestic dispatches in FY2024 (April 2023 to March 2024), according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), cementing its position as the world's third-largest automotive market after China and the United States. The market grew strongly on FY2023 and is far larger than it was a decade ago.
Maruti Suzuki: Dominant But Challenged
Maruti Suzuki maintained its commanding position at approximately 41% market share. The Wagon R, Swift, and Baleno consistently rank among India's top-selling models. The Brezza compact SUV has been central to Maruti's pivot into the high-growth compact UV segment.
However, Maruti's market share has actually compressed from over 50% in the mid-2010s. The squeeze comes from multiple directions: Hyundai and Kia have built premium-value products that now routinely outsell Maruti's upper-range offerings, and Tata Motors has taken the entire EV segment almost entirely to itself.
The SUV Takeover
The most dramatic structural shift in the Indian market has been the rise of the compact SUV/UV segment. In FY2024, utility vehicles (UVs), the Indian classification that encompasses SUVs, crossovers and MPVs, made up around 60% of passenger vehicle dispatches, and 65% in FY2025 (SIAM figures via Outlook Business, 15 April 2025). Five years earlier they were well under half. The Hyundai Creta, Tata Nexon, Maruti Brezza, Kia Seltos, and Mahindra Scorpio N have driven this transformation.
The shift matters economically because UV prices run significantly higher than hatchbacks, which has driven up average transaction prices across the market. This has been good news for manufacturer revenues but has left the entry-level buyer segment thinly served.
Tata Motors and the EV Story
India's EV market in FY2024 was close to a Tata Motors monopoly in the passenger vehicle segment. Tata held about 71% of PV EV registrations, driven by the Nexon EV, Punch EV, and Tiago EV. The Nexon EV has been particularly important, it offered a practical range at a price that serious buyers could actually afford without substantial subsidy support.
MG Motor (about 13%) and Mahindra (about 7%) held the next two positions, with dramatically smaller volumes. Total electric passenger vehicle registrations in FY2024 were 90,335 units, about 2.1% of the overall market and up 90% on FY2023 (Vahan data via Autocar Professional, 31 March 2024).
The Regional Divide
A handful of large states, led by Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, account for a large part of passenger vehicle sales in India, and Delhi-NCR is a major market on its own. The south Indian states are generally ahead on EV adoption and premium vehicle purchases.
The EV story is most advanced in Delhi, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, states with relatively well-developed urban charging networks and strong policy incentives. In contrast, rural northern states show very low EV penetration, not because of lack of interest but because of charging infrastructure gaps.
What Came Next in FY2025
Growth slowed in FY2025 as the post-pandemic surge normalised: SIAM put domestic passenger vehicle dispatches at 4,301,848, up 2%. New electric models, including the Creta Electric, the Mahindra BE 6 and Maruti Suzuki's first EV, the e Vitara, have widened choice in the EV space. Explore the India data using the country selector at the top of the AutoNergy dashboard.