Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) dispatched around 95 thousand vehicles during the Navratri (and Dussehra) period, creating a new record
Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, has shown a remarkable sales recovery since the lockdown started ending. In September 2020, the company reported a sales increase of over 30 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. The manufacturer, however, has managed to outdo itself this Navratri festive season. The Indo-Japanese carmaker has reportedly sold over 95000 vehicles in just a 10 day period!
With Navratri (and Dussehra) being an extremely auspicious time, the Indian market enjoys a big sales boost. The same holds true for the auto sector as well. Maruti Suzuki had also been offering a pre-Navratri booking bonus earlier this month, along with additional benefits to customers who took delivery during the Navratri period. It’s no wonder that the carmaker was able to dispatch such a huge number of vehicles.
The biggest sales came from Maruti’s entry-level hatchbacks. With people gravitating towards personal mobility post-lockdown, there has been an increase in the demand for vehicles, especially affordable ones. Interestingly, this is the market space where Maruti excels, with plenty of options in its portfolio, including the Alto, S-Presso, Celerio, Wagon-R, etc.
Maruti’s rivals, like Hyundai and its sister company Kia, are also enjoying a lot of success in India these days. For Hyundai, the Creta has proven itself to be the bestseller, followed closely by the Hyundai Grand i10 Nios. The soon-to-be-replaced i20 has also managed to rope in a lot of sales, primarily due to the massive discounts on offer.
As for Kia, it has managed to generate impressive sales with such a limited portfolio. The company only has three vehicles on sale in India currently – Seltos, Carnival, and Sonet. That last one was only launched in our market in October, but it still managed to outsell all its rivals!
Tata and Renault have also managed to post positive sales figures recently (YoY), while others, like Mahindra, Skoda (and Volkswagen), MG, Toyota, etc., have registered a YoY sales decline. However, every manufacturers is planning to launch new products, and we might soon see a strong recovery in the Indian automobile sector.