CarDekho, the leading auto-tech firm, today released a trend report on Passenger Cars search on its platform for April – June FY 22. The latest trends indicate massive growth in online searches and changing consumer trends. Across all its digital platforms, the company witnessed 227 million visits in Q1, FY22, a jump of 55 per cent compared to the same period in FY21.
The post-COVID world witnessed a dynamic change in consumer patterns. The first wave of coronavirus had nudged users towards personal mobility and the second wave accelerated the move. Consumer behaviour has changed drastically in the past year, witnessing changes across ages, segments and variants.
The biggest change has been the move towards Electric Mobility. The consistent upward movement of fuel prices has impacted customer confidence toward ICE engine powered vehicles. EVs on CarDekho platform witnessed a whopping 224 per cent growth in Q1 (April, May & June), FY2022, when compared to a similar period in FY2021.
Tata Motors led the search trend in EV space, with Tata Nexon EV being the most searched car with approximately 32% of total traffic. The company’s other model Tata Tigor, along with Nexon and MG ZS EV contributed almost 50% of the total traffic in the EV segment. Delhi was the key city for EV’s searches, followed by other metros and mini-metros.
Surprisingly, many Tier 2 and 3 cities like Lucknow, Jaipur and Patna witnessed a spike in electric vehicle search, marking their presence in the top ten cities in this segment. Other prominent brands searched have been Strom Motors R3, Hyundai Kona, Mahindra E-Verito, MarutiWagonR Electric and the premium Jaguar I-Pace.
With rising fuel prices, Electric Vehicles saw their search market share grow to 3.39 per cent in June 2021 from 1.70 percent last year. Petrol variants continue to dominate search but have witnessed search market share degrowth by over two percent from 52.46 percent to 50 percent whereas the search market share for diesel vehicles have gained a marginal growth by 1%.
Top 10 cities searching cars online on CarDekho in June 2021
Delhi continues to be the leader in online car search on CarDekho in June 2021. Surprisingly, the second, third, ninth and tenth positions were taken by Tier 2 cities like Pune, Lucknow, Patna and Jaipur respectively.
Metros and mini-metros from the southern and eastern parts of the country also made a strong contribution, with Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai in fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth place respectively. Tier 2 and 3 cities dominate the search with over 40%.
Automatic transmission catching up the momentum
The Indian customer has been exploring newer technologies and there is a growing trend towards the adaptation of automatic transmission. When compared to a similar period last year, the sector witnessed an average growth of over 3% with 48.5% share in Q1 as compared to a 45.7% last year. At this rate, automatic transmission cars will soon overtake manual transmission car searches. The search difference between Manual and Automatic transmission has narrowed from 8.3% in the Q1 2020 to 3% in Q1 2021.
SUV leads the way
Hatchback and Sedan segments saw a continuous drop in online search share whereas SUVs which sustained a positive momentum after an initial drop in May and June 2020 witnessed a growth of over 11 per cent in Q1 2021 with an average of 38.8 percent in Q1 2021 against 27.5 percent in 2020. The Hatchback has been the backbone of the Indian automobile industry for years but after a long time, these segments are witnessing marginal de-growth of less than one percent. The SUV segment now dominates the total searches and consumer interest in India.
Senior Citizens and 45 + customers prefer personal mobility
Social distancing is the new normal and has impacted the safety concern among senior citizens. The trend witnessed a remarkable over 246 percent growth in search by customers above the age of 65. Similar growth was witnessed among the 55-64 age group (148%) and the 45 -54 age group (210%).
While the overall average growth in the 18-24 and 25-34 age groups was 70 and 21% respectively, the search universe stands highest across the category.
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