Women buying more SUVs, finds pre-owned car platform

Despite constantly rising incidences of women driving cars in India, a woman driving a SUV is still not a common sight. However, Spinny, one of India’s leading used-car platforms revealed recently in a report that it has witnessed an increase in the demand for compact SUVs from women.

The Company has observed a 34% month-on-month demand growth from women for compact SUVs in the price range of Rs 6-Rs 8 lakhs in April 2021. The observations are based on the sales through their platform. The most popular models getting sold are Ford EcoSport, Hyundai Creta and Maruti Brezza.

According to the report, these women fall in the age group of 29 to 35 years.

The highest rate of increase in demand is in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR where the surge is 40% and 37% respectively on a year-on-year basic.

The cities that witnessed more than 15% growth are Hyderabad and Pune.

“We are witnessing high demand and test drive requests from ladies since September, 2020. Demands are high in the automatic petrol version. Next in the pecking order come sedans and premium hatchbacks. After the onset of the pandemic, 20%-23% of our total customers are women,” said Niraj Singh, CEO & Founder, Spinny.

In used-car platform Spinny has witnessed 65% of first-time buyers. And the percentage of lady customers has doubled from 10% in 2019 to 20%-22%, added Singh.

Industry insiders said, there has also been an increase in the number of women buyers of pre-owned luxury cars amid the pandemic. But the pre-owned SUV hatchbacks are witnessing hefty growth over the last two quarters.

“We have seen this trend continuing in cities such as Mumbai, Ahmadabad and Kolkata as well. Since women have been especially inconvenienced by social distancing and allied corona virus related safety norms, they now consider owning a car as the swiftest and safest mode of personal mobility.” Niraj Singh said.

Though there is no data on the number of women who drive their own vehicle in the country, industry statistics reveal that women account for 10-12% of the overall sales in the 2.96 million passenger vehicles market. However, the share of women using cars can be higher since the vehicle is often bought by and registered in the name of a male member of the family.

Different companies are now adding features targeted at women. The launch of auto gear shift has been a hit with women drivers, say industry experts.