Passenger vehicle sales of Maruti Suzuki witnessed an almost 20 per cent drop in the first month of the current financial year
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) has been the country’s highest selling carmaker since time immemorial now. Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that it enjoys approximately 50 per cent market share, with Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), its nearest rival, being many times less popular. Surprisingly, however, the company has witnessed a near 20 per cent decline in sales in April 2019.
The carmaker sold 133,704 units last month, which led to a 19.6 per cent decline in sales on YoY basis. In April 2018, the carmaker had sold 164, 978 units. Also, it may be noted that the company’s latest sales figures also include the 364 units that the company has supplied to Toyota Kirloskar Motor.
These cars will be rebadged as Toyota Glanza and will go on to rival the Hyundai Elite i20, Honda Jazz and even the Maruti Baleno. There are many reasons for the dip in sales of Maruti Suzuki. The Ciaz has suffered a massive dip in demand. The C2-segment sedan sold only 2,789 units last month, thereby resulting into a 45.5 per cent drop in sales.
The carmarker sold 22,766 units of the Alto 800 and WagonR, compared to 37,794 units sold in April 2018. Overall, its compact cars recorded a sales decline of 13.9 per cent. On the other hand, sales of the Maruti Vitara Brezza and Ertiga posted positive growth. These two vehicles witnessed a 5.9 per cent growth in sales by selling 22,035 units against 20,804 units sold in the corresponding month of last year.
Sales of Maruti vans, which include the Eeco and the now defunct Omni, witnessed a slump of 26.7 per cent from 15,886 units in April 2018 to 11,649 units last month. This can be attributed to the discontinuation of the Omni owing to its inability to meet the new safety and emission standards.
Even the Maruti Gypsy, which was on sale for over three decades, has been discontinued due to its inability to meet the new regulations. However, the discontinuation of the low-volume model won’t leave an adverse impact on the sales performance of the carmaker.