From Renault Duster to Volkswagen Polo and Hyundai Santro, cars that got discontinued in 2022

India’s automobile industry has been witnessing its best ever performance in the last few months aided by the new launches and upgrades in the present models. Apart from this, the industry also saw a paradigm shift across segments with sports utility vehicles (SUVs) taking over hatchbacks for the first time and increased preference for premium products.

However, there’s some bad news too as some consumer-favourite cars — Renault Duster, Volkswagen Polo and Hyundai Santro — got discontinued. There were also some models, which were too outdated to keep up with their modern rivals or weren’t able to generate enough sales to become economical, which were also discontinued.

Here’s a list of cars that got discontinued in 2022:

Hyundai launched this hatchback in 1998, but got 20 years late to introduce its second generation in the country. Initially, the new Santro enjoyed good sales. But, due to the higher price, it wasn’t able to match its rivals in the entry-level segment.

Moreover, the government’s new mandatory six airbags rule and the upcoming real driving emission (RDE) norms made re-engineering the Santro an expensive ordeal for the company, leading Hyundai to axe Santro's production in May 2022.

Hyundai Aura and Grand i10 Nios diesel: Hyundai had axed diesel powertrains of Aura and Nios just a month after Santro was discontinued, in July 2022. Both Aura and Nios featured a diesel engine and offered a mileage of up to 25 km/l, making them the most efficient diesel engines in their segments.

However, the change in consumer preference from diesel to petrol resulted in low sales. In addition to this, the high cost of redeveloping diesel engines for the upcoming new emission norms made Hyundai pull the plug on both models. Interestingly, both models are still offered with the powertrains option of petrol, turbo-petrol and CNG.

Hyundai Elantra: This was the South Korean carmaker’s biggest and last executive sedan available on sale in India. The Elantra, which was last updated in 2019, was up against the likes of the Skoda Octavia, Volkswagen Jetta, Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic.

However, Hyundai never launched the 7th generation model in India which debuted globally in 2020. According to the reports, the company discontinued this car because of the rising popularity of SUVs in India. But, it still plans to bring its new-gen Verna with segment-first features like ADAS.

Maruti Suzuki S Cross: The country’s largest carmaker introduced S Cross in 2015 along with the Nexa chain of dealerships. Maruti managed to sell around 1.69 lakh units of S Cross, which rivals the cars like Renault Duster and Hyundai Creta.

During the launch, S Cross was offered two Fiat-sourced diesel engine options — an 89hp 1.3-litre unit and a 117hp 1.6-litre unit — but in 2020, discontinued its diesel engines. However, Maruti Suzuki pulled the plug on the S Cross to make way for its new flagship, the Grand Vitara. Reportedly, the company axed the S-Cross because it saw its sales drop consistently.

Mahindra Alturas G4: Mahindra’s re-badged SsangYong Rexton was aimed to rival the likes of the Toyota Fortuner. But due to the uninspiring sales figures, the company silently discontinued the Alturas G4 in the country and delisted the SUV on its website.

Reportedly, Mahindra dropped Alturas G4 from its portfolio because of the lack of completely knocked down (CKD) kits, which was ultimately leading to the higher costs of the SUV.

Renault Duster: Among car enthusiasts, Renault Duster is famous for starting the compact SUV segment in the country. Duster, which enjoyed a dominant run for a long time, saw nearly 40,000 units sold in its first year of production. Renault introduced the Duster in India in 2012 and was also the first SUV that kickstarted the monocoque midsize SUV segment in the country.

However, with the arrival of the Hyundai Creta, things started to turn sour for Duster. Creta came with many segment-first features, a premium and richer experience on top of what Duster offered. In addition to this, Renault never launched the second generation Duster in India and with more additions to the segment, Duster’s appeal diminished and was discontinued.

Toyota Urban Cruiser: This vehicle of the Japanese carmaker is among the ones that had the shortest life span in India and got discontinued in just two years. The Toyota Urban Cruiser, which was a rebadged version of the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, saw sales of around 2,200 units per month.

One of the reasons for Toyota to pull the plug on the Urban Cruiser is that re-engineering the new Brezza could bring its cost closer to its recently launched Urban Cruiser Hyryder. However, It’s still not revealed why Toyota dropped this from its portfolio.

Volkswagen Polo: Launched in 2010, Volkswagen Polo was among the most revered hatchbacks by auto enthusiasts. It managed to make its presence known for the longest time in this list, nearly 12 years. Polo, with its timeless design and solid build quality, was also Volkswagen’s most popular model in India and sold over 2.5 million units.

The hatchback was also able to make the transition to BS6 norms. However, due to the drop in sales and the company’s larger scheme of things, VW Polo was discontinued in India.