NEW DELHI: Domestic passenger vehicle (PV) wholesales fell for the second straight month in August with most car manufacturers slowing down dispatches to rationalise stocks at dealer showrooms amidst a sluggishness in demand.
It is estimated that around 350,000-355,000 PVs were dispatched to dealerships last month, a fall of about 2-3% over 361,123 vehicles sold in August last year. India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) reported an 8.4% slump in domestic sales last month to 143,075 units.
Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Director, Marketing & Sales said that their retail sales are slightly better than wholesales and because of this MSIL’s network stock, which at the beginning of August was 38 days, has now come down to 36 days.
“Our focus is that our channel partners are able to have a reasonably healthy stock to sell the vehicles. We are continuously trying to bring the stocks down, and now it is at 36 days,” he added.
He is also hopeful of healthy demand in the upcoming festive season which would kick off from Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra and Onam in Kerala in the first half of September.
“Last year, Onam was on August 27-28-29, however his year, its on September 16-17-18. It is not a like-to-like comparison, but just to share that this year, in the state of Kerala, if we compare the whole month, we are seeing a growth of 7% in terms of bookings,” said Banerjee. Hyundai Motor India’s (HMIL) domestic sales fell by 8% to 49,525 units last month while Tata Motors reported a decline of 3% to sell 44,142 units in August.