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Slow lane: Diwali fails to rev up the Indian car market

Slow lane: Diwali fails to rev up the Indian car market

M&M rides high on new launches; Maruti, Tata Motors and Hyundai see muted domestic sales.

Manvendra Singh Rajvanshi
  • Updated Nov 1, 2024 5:33 PM IST
Slow lane: Diwali fails to rev up the Indian car marketTop automotive brands had put on attractive discounts, exchange offers and bonuses, hoping to make the most of the festive season. (Representative photo)

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) was once again the outlier in the great Indian car bazaar, with its SUVs riding high over rough patches in October. The Anand Mahindra-led company reported its highest-ever monthly sales on the back of strong growth in its sport utility vehicle dispatches and exports.

M&M sold 96,648 units in October compared to 80,679 units in the year-ago period and 87,839 units in September. In the passenger vehicle category, the company recorded its highest-ever utility vehicle sales in India in October selling 54,504 units, up 25 percent year-on-year (YoY). M&M currently offers SUVs such as the Thar, Scorpio, Bolero, XUV300, and XUV700. 

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Mixed fortunes for others

Maruti Suzuki India also posted its highest-ever monthly sales in October. The company dispatched 206,434 units, an increase of 3.6 percent, compared to last year. However, exports padded the numbers for the country's largest car maker as its domestic sales were down by 2.3 percent at 173,266 units. Its traditional bread-and-butter models in the mini and compact segments saw a decline of 19.5 percent year-on-year.

The October sales figures reflect what Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava said earlier this week. “The fact that the market under Rs 10 lakh is not growing — in fact, it is declining — that’s a cause of some worry. Because unless that lower end of the market grows, there are going to be no feeders into the upper market,” Bhargava said. “In 2018-19, the under-Rs 10 lakh car market comprised 80 percent of the overall passenger vehicle market. This segment has been impacted due to price increases,” he added.

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For the newly-listed Hyundai Motor India, SUVs were the driving force. The company posted its third-highest monthly sales in October since its inception, driven by strong sales of the Creta. Hyundai sold 70,078 units in October, up 2 percent, compared to 68,728 units a year ago. Sales of SUVs, which constituted 68 percent of the company’s total sales in October, reached 37,902 units, the highest ever in a month.

However, Hyundai’s domestic sales were almost flat YoY at 55,568 units in October. Hyundai Motor India’s exports rose 6.7 per cent year-on-year to 14,510 units, keeping the company just a tad above M&M in total sales.

Another major car maker, Tata Motors, saw a small dip in passenger vehicle sales. It sold a total of 48,423 passenger vehicles in October compared to 48,637 units in the same period last year. Its domestic sales stood at 48,131 units compared to 48,337 units a year ago, while exports fell by 3 percent YoY at 292 units. In the electric passenger vehicle segment, the company recorded sales of 5,355 units during the month down by 2 percent YoY.

Published on: Nov 1, 2024 5:32 PM IST
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