NEW DELHI: The first month of this year’s festive season has turned out to be a fruitful one for automakers with most of them reporting record sales after several quarters of slowdown. India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki’s (MSIL) domestic wholesales went up by 18 per cent in October to 1,63,656 units. The carmaker had recently said that its retail deliveries during the 10 days of Navratri alone stood at 96,700 units.
RC Bhargava, chairman, MSIL believes that sales will remain robust in November and December. However, from January, automakers may face a slump period due to Covid-19 uncertainties and a slowdown in general economic activity The country’s second-largest carmaker Hyundai (HMIL) recorded its highest ever domestic sales of 56,605 units last month while its exports stood at 12,230 units. Hyundai’s previous highest monthly domestic sales number was achieved in October 2018 with 52,001 units.
“The October month sales performance has set a positive tone for overall business environment and we are confident that Hyundai will continue to strongly contribute towards sustainable growth of economy, community and all its stake holders,” Tarun Garg, Director-Sales, Marketing and Service, HMIL said. Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), Honda Cars India (HCIL), Kia Motors, MG Motor and Mahindra & Mahindra also reported an increase in October sales.
Kia reported a 63.53 per cent rise year-on-year to 21,021 units while Honda reported an 8.3 per cent growth. Toyota sold a total of 12,373 units in the domestic market in October this year against 11,866 units in October 2019. “The month of October has been our best month so far since March. The festive season has proved to be bullish as we witness demand surging, month on month,” Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales & Service, TKM said.
Two-wheeler sales also gathered festive momentum. Hero MotorCorp sold 806,848 units (up 35 per cent y-o-y) of motorcycles and scooters-its highest-ever sales in any single month. “With the higher dispatches during the month, the company’s customer touch points across the country now have adequate inventories in line with market demand in the ongoing festival period,” Hero said. Royal Enfield posted a sale of 66,891 units, down 7 per cent y-o-y.