One of the biggest contributing factor to the drop in sales of the company on YoY basis is the discontinuation of the Omni van, which alone used to account for 7,000-8,000 sales every month
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), which has been the largest carmaker of the country since time immemorial, has sold 147,110 cars in February 2020. This corresponds to a 2.3% drop in the overall sales on YoY basis. Interesting, however, its UV sales have gone up by 3.5%.
Last month, the company sold 27,499 units of its ‘Mini Cars’, Alto and S-Presso. This leads to a 11.1 per cent increase from 24,751 units sold in February 2019. It may be noted here that in February last year, the company’s mini cars used to comprise Alto 800 and Alto K10. This time, however, the K10 has gone out of the picture as the S-Presso seems to have easily managed to fill its shoes.
On the other hand, sales of the company’s ‘compact cars’, which include WagonR, Swift, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno, Dzire and Tour S, has fallen from 72,678 units in February 2019 to 69,838 units last month. This has led to the registration of a 3.9 per cent drop.
Even in the mid-size segment, Maruti Suzuki’s popularity has taken a dip. Last month, the company sold 2,544 units of the Ciaz, which is its only offering in the mid-size sedan segment. This has led to a 17.5 per cent drop from 3,084 units sold in the second month of last year. Cumulatively, however, the total sales of its cars have remained more or less unchanged. Compared to a total of 100,513 units sold in February 2019, the company has managed to sell 99,871 units last month. This is a negligible 0.6% drop.
Interestingly, while the carmaker witnessed a drop in sales in the compact and mid-size segments, it has seen a 3.5 per cent growth in the UV category. In this segment, the carmaker sells the Ertiga, S-Cross, Vitara Brezza and XL6. Last month, the company sold a total of 22,604 UVs.
In comparison, sales of these vehicles stood at 21,834 units in the second month of last year. It’s important to note here that the above numbers even reflect the sale of XL6, which wasn’t on sale in February 2019. Also, it’s important to note here that the discontinuation of the Omni seems to be the biggest contributing factor in the de-growth in sales figures as the entry-level van used to account for 6,000-7,000 unit sales every month.