It was about a week before India went under complete lockdown when Hyundai launched the all-new Creta. The date was March 16, 2020. Today, the second-gen model completes one year and what a year it has been! Over twelve months, Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL) sold more than 1.21 lakh units of the new Creta. Simple math reveals that, on average, the carmaker retailed over 10,000 units every month. Those figures ensured that the SUV reclaimed its segment’s throne and be amongst the country’s bestselling cars month after month.

We’ve got more dirt on Creta’s performance. HMIL says that more than 51 per cent of sales accounted for the higher SX and SX(O) variants. Another statistic says that the diesel-powered derivatives contributed to over 60 per cent of the overall sales. Hyundai also confirmed that one in every five Cretas sold was an automatic. That’s a chunky 20 per cent of the overall pie. Let’s not forget that the Creta has an automatic transmission option with all three engines – IVT with 1.5 petrol, 6-speed AT (torque converter) with 1.5 diesel and 7-speed DCT (dual-clutch automatic transmission) with 1.4 turbo-petrol. As for the manual transmission option, that’s available only with the former two powerplants.

The new Hyundai Creta bagged 30,000 bookings by June 2020. That figure surged past the 55,000-mark by the end of the following month. In August of last year, sales of the new Creta helped the marque breach the 5 lakh lifetime sales figure. Then, in October, HMIL announced that the new-gen SUV has garnered over 1.15 lakh bookings.

It was back in 2015 when Hyundai first launched the Creta in India. Since then, the South Korean carmaker has sold over 5.8 lakh units of the SUV. On top of that, it has exported more than 2.16 lakh units, serving several markets worldwide. In India, the Hyundai Creta competes directly with the Kia Seltos, Tata Harrier, MG Hector and the Nissan Kicks.