With Maruti and Hyundai at top two positions, there’s an intense battle raging for 3rd slot

India’s top two carmakers Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor India are sitting on record market shares at end of 2016-17 — 47.74 per cent and 16.85 per cent, respectively — but it’s the battle for the third place that promises edge-of-the-seat action. Almost half a dozen companies are looking to break out of the pack, it’s just one successful model or 3,000-5,000 units of separation. Over the past 18-24 months, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) saw stiff competition from Honda for the no. 3 slot. Although the Japanese auto giant upstaged the maker of Scorpio and XUV 500 for a few months, M&M managed to hold its own even as Honda lost momentum due to dwindling diesel vehicle sales. M&M’s homegrown rival Tata Motors has declared that it is aiming to get to number 3 in three years, from number 4 currently. Renault, Ford and Toyota, which have off and on broken into the top 5, are not far behind (See Zoom Team).