‘SUV’IVAL OF THE (UN)FITTEST!

By Ruma Dubey

Avinash just got a pay hike. He is two years old in this swanky new investment firm and he is on a high. He has gone ahead and booked a SUV, the coveted Mahindra & Mahindra XUV 500. On other hand, his father has been in service, for the past 25 years and he owns a Maruti Wagon R and very happy with the acquisition too. But for Avinash the Wagon R is a bone of contention as he feels that it is too small. Too small for a family of four? What he means is ‘small’ in terms of stature. He is doing well in his career, earning a very good salary and feels that the Wagon R is not the right representation of his rising status.

And this is the reason why, like Avinash, many youngsters are opting for SUVs, the monthly sales figures of SUV shows a consistent rise while that of small cars is either stagnant or on the descent. World over, people continue to look at India as a poor country. Yet, the latest report is baffling, defying all that we actually see on the ground – from the data provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, it appears that one out of every four cars sold in India is now an SUV. So much so that it is today eating away a large portion of the passenger car pie.

Hyundai Creta and Maruti Vitara Brezza are the top selling ‘compact’ SUVs and even Hyundai’s Rs.10 lakh plus Creta is running in top gear, selling over 10,000 units last month.

In 2010, the SUV segment had a market share of just 14% of total passenger cars and today, it is at 25%. And the battle is only going to heat up further, what with so many mega SUV launches planned – there is Tata Motors Nexon, Renault’s Captur, VW’s Tiguan, Nissan’s Kicks and Mahindra too has planned various SUVs.

In FY17, the Indian vehicle sector crossed the 3 million mark of which passenger car segment sold 2,102,996 units and SUVs sold 761,997 units – a jump up of 30%. By 2020, the SUV segment is expected to cross the 1 million mark.

This craze for SUVs in a country like Dubai is understandable as fuel there is cheaper than water. Forget the damage being caused to the bruised and battered environment, the simple thing is that in a country like India, where fuel is imported and cost of living is burning a hole in the pocket, this lure for SUVs makes no economic sense.  Ironically, despite the consistent hike in petrol rates, people did not stop buying SUVs and now with steady rates of fuel, the demand has only surged further.  

Surely, the reason is beyond economics. It is more about creating a perception of oneself. Just as a Nano could not take off purely because it was ‘perceived’ as a car for the poor, SUVs are booming because they are perceived to be a symbol of higher status, a vehicle which announces that ‘you have arrived’ in life.

Yes, there are other reasons too – higher seating capacity, SUVs are safer as they are larger and heavier, higher cargo capacity, can tackle the potholed roads better than a small car and maybe, it is good when going traveling off the beaten track.

But these are all reasons to justify the choice of a SUV. Yes, the real reason is that people in India buy an SUV today simply because they know and want to exhibit that they can afford to buy a SUV. They buy simply because they can. Surely with families becoming smaller, cars should have ideally got smaller but today, smaller families have bigger homes and bigger cars. Like America, India is unfortunately fast moving towards consumerism. Every buy is today driven by this need to ‘show’ rather than about practicality. Strangely, this new generation, which is buying SUVs is stated to be environmentally conscious so then how come they opt for gas guzzlers like SUVs? Or is being selectively ‘environmentally friendly’ also about creating an image, being ‘cool’.

Just as the automobile sector is a reflection of the economy, the buy and sell pattern is a reflection of cars and is also a reflection of the attitude of people. And today, we have thrown away economic and logical sense, purely ruled by the need to satisfy our senses.

This is the paradox of our times. As said by Dalai Lama, “We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment, We've been all the way to the moon and back but have trouble crossing the street to meet the neighbor. We built more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever but have less communication. We have become long on quantity but short on quality.”