2022 is the positive year Indian car makers compared to pandemic years. Indian car market seen lot of new car launches, however, Indian car market saw a lots of cars being discontinued. Many of these were discontinued because as they came to the end of their life cycle or while some were deemed unfit/outdated to compete with their modern-day rivals. Some of them were not that much economical to compete with their rivals. Here’s a list of cars that were pulled off in 2022.
Popular Car Models in India That Got Axed in 2022
Datsun Go, Go+, Redigo discontinued
In the first half 2022 Nissan decided to pull of his sub brand from Indian car market. Operating sub brand while Nissan themselves were not doing well was hard. Datsun where launched in India to attract first car buyers who are buying Maruti Suzuki’s first segment cars. But Datsun was not that much lucky. Datsun was not doing very well in Indian car market. Finally poor sales was the reasons to exit the market. Datsun sold 4,296 units between January and December 2021. whereas, Renault sold more than 30,000 units each of the Kwid and Triber in the same duration.
Volkswagen Polo discontinued
Volkswagen Polo was one of the most premium hatchbacks in India with solid build quality. It has been launched in 2010 and last till 12 years. In 12 year Volkswagen sold over 2.5 million units of Polo in India. Polo is capable and even survived the BS6 norms transition when introduced. Volkswagen Polo received multiple cosmetic, mill upgrades since 2010 but not upgraded with all new platform. We can say Volkswagen itself kill this car sell. it was most affordable car with price ranging from Rs 6.50 – 10.50 lakh (ex-showroom). From few year’s its sales dropped below the sustenance level and this was the reason to discontinue it.
Maruti Suzuki S Cross discontinued
Coming to Maruti Suzuki, the largest carmaker in India by volume. They also need to discontinue their car because of down sell. S Cross introduced in 2015, also Maruti Suzuki started the Nexa chain with it, with Maruti Suzuki Nexa sold 1.69 lakh units of the S Cross since launch(in 7-years). Sell of car is affected by It’s rivalled the popular-at-the-time Renault Duster and Hyundai Creta. Initially, S-Cross was launched with two Fiat-sourced diesel engines – an 89hp 1.3-litre unit and a 117hp 1.6-litre unit. In 2020, Maruti Suzuki ditched its both diesel engines because BS6 norms, and the S-Cross introduced with only a 1.5-litre petrol engine. It was available for a price tag ranging between Rs 8.95 lakh and Rs 12.92 lakh (ex-showroom).
S-Cross was discontinued in favour of Grand Vitara, people says. S-Cross had not that good in terms of looks. S-Cross had a confused personality and it comes in no segment. Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos was the main rivals and also VW Taigun and Skoda Kushaq was creating stress. it was finally axed.
Hyundai Grand i10 Nios/ Aura diesel discontinued
The Grand i10 Nios and the Aura were the most economical diesel engines in their segments claiming fuel efficiency of 25kpl. Both diesel engine cars were discontinued because of consumer prefer petrol than diesel, continues down sales, BS6 norms. Both Grand i10 Nios and the Aura are nowcomes with petrol and CNG engines only.
Hyundai Santro discontinued
The original Santro was introduced in 1998 and played game-changer role for Hyundai in Indian car market. However, the second generation Santro failed to match the expectations. In last due to low sell South Korean carmaker discontinued Santro. I was surprised when I started collecting list of discontinued cars after I found Santro name.
Santro was priced higher than market-rivals such as its own Grand i10 Nios, Wagon R, Celerio. The Hyundai Santro was priced between Rs 4.91 lakh to Rs 8.45 lakh (ex-showroom).
Renault Duster discontinued
With the launch of Hyundai Creta, things turned bad for Duster. After some period Duster was outdated in comparison to its rivals. Creta started offering everything that Duster offered and many more than Duster didn’t. Slowly Creta captured Duster market share and Renault never tried to win the race.