By George Guimarães | 05/08/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch
The HR-V is taking back the role it always had in Honda’s lineup. Since its launch as a national product in 2015, the SUV has been the brand’s bestselling model in the internal market. It did not show up at the lead only last year when, with little more than 15.4 thousand deliveries, it fell behind the City and the City hatchback.
Nevertheless, the loss of Honda’s podium’s highest place was due to a good and well-justified reason. In December 2020, the manufacturer stopped producing the SUV’s first generation, already in its sixth year, to prepare the plant of Itirapina, SP, for the arrival of the second generation.
Launched only in July 2022, the New HR began to gain momentum after September. Until then, only units produced up to December 2021 reached the streets, less than five hundred units a month. With the new generation arrival, the average overcame 2.9 thousand in the last four months of 2022.
The model has kept the same performance in this year’s first four months and already reached 11.1 thousand units, twice the sales of Honda’ second bestseller in the period, the sedan City, which totaled 4.9 thousand deliveries.
HR-V’s competitiveness recovery can be seen clearly by its 17% sales growth compared to the first four months of 2022, while the SUV segment advanced by 11.5%.
In April, the HR-V had 4,7 thousand units delivered, the best result of the second generation and was the month’s second best-selling SUV. For a little margin – only 210 units – it did not take the lead from the Jeep Compass.
Due to the end of the first generation, the HR-V finished last year in 13th place, but it was not able to face its main competitors since 2019, when it was fifth.
The HR-V sales recovery already reflects on Honda’s market share. The brand sold 20.7 thousand vehicles in 2023, a 17% increase over the 13% registered by the whole automobile sector in the period. The manufacturer’s share reached 4.5%, almost one percent more than at the end of 2022.
Volkswagen advance with SUVs and threats Jeep
The HR-V was responsible for 5.2% of the SUV segment sales from January to April, more than twice what it achieved last year.
The leading SUV brand is still Jeep, with 19.3% of 2023’s deliveries. It is now closely trailed by Volkswagen, with 16.4% of the sales. The difference between the two brands, which was 4.6% in the first four months last year, now is under 3 points.
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