Auto sales: Maruti and M&M are clear winners this Sep

Maruti Suzuki posted an increase in dispatches to dealers in September which shows it is building up inventory for the festival season and also making up for the lost units during the labour unrest which kept its Manesar unit shut for a month during the September quarter.

Festivities have already begun in some parts of the country with Ganesh Chaturthi and sales should be better in October and November than they have been in the last six months.

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The company, along with some others such as General Motors and Honda Siel Cars, has recently announced moderate price increases but none of these badges is likely to implement these hikes till the festivities are over.

Discounts and freebies, which have been the highest ever for the last few months, are only expected to increase between now and Diwali.

Maruti’s domestic sales grew 12.7 percent to 88,801 vehicles (78,816 vehicles). But unlike Maruti, domestic dispatches of the other two car biggies-Tata Motors and Hyundai Motor India-showed a decline.

Tata’s passenger vehicle sales (including Utility Vehicles and cars) stood at 21,652 (26,319 units), lower by 18 percent. Hyundai’s domestic sales were down to 30,851 units (35,955 units).

Not only is the domestic market in the grip of a slowdown, last year September was one of the festival months which led to high sales numbers for most car makers and this is one of the reasons that Hyundai and Tata’s dispatches have declined on a year-on-year basis.

“We expect the suppressed demand would improve on account of festive purchases as the demand peaks during this period,” Hyundai’s VP (National Sales) Rakesh Srivastava said.

While Maruti’s good run was largely on account of MUV Ertiga which sold in robust numbers, M&M’s passenger vehicle business grew 22 percent to 23,808 units. The firm makes utility vehicles such as the Quanto, Xylo, Scorpio and XUV 5OO.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor also reported lower sales, at 12,115 units (12,807 units), which is a decline of 5 percent. Deputy MD Sandeep Singh pointed out that there has been a drop in sales in September because “The market has been quite sluggish and the market sentiments are very low in the passenger car segment. We hope to see it picking up in the festive season.”

Even sales in markets outside India were muted for Maruti, since its exports dropped 23.11 percent to 5,187 units. But M&M’s exports grew 3 percent to 3,079 units and Hyundai’s were up almost 4 percent to 22,707 units.