NEW DELHI: India’s two leading caremakers — Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) and Hyundai — ended CY2021 with significant slump in domestic sales.MSIL, which controls nearly half of India passenger vehicle (PV) market, sold 123,016 PVs in the domestic market in December 2021 as against 140,754 units in the same month a year ago, a fall of 13%.
During the April-December period, Maruti’s sales grew from 863,874 units in FY21 to 934,825 units in FY22. However, compared to April-December of FY20, the sales are significantly lower as MSIL had sold 1,064,560 PVs during the pre-Covid period.
“The shortage of electronic components had a minor impact on the production of vehicles during the month. The shortage primarily affected the production of vehicles sold in domestic market. The company took all possible measures to minimise the impact,” said MSIL on Saturday in a regulatory filing.
India’s second largest carmaker Hyundai reported a decline of 32% in its December sales to 32,312 units as compared to 47,400 units in December 2020.
What’s more significant is that the Korean carmaker wasn’t the second largest PV seller during the month as Tata Motors overtook it for the first time in close to a decade. Tata dispatched 35,299 units, its highest ever in a month, in December 2021 against Hyundai’s 32,312 units.
Backed by an aggressive product portfolio, Tata also reported its highest ever quarterly sales in October to December of 2021 and the highest annual sales in 2021 since its inception. During the October to December quarter, Tata sold close to 99,000 vehicles and ended 2021 with sales of 3.31 lakh units.
Shailesh Chandra, President, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors, said, “The overwhelming market response to Tata Punch launched in Oct ’21 is further boosting demand for the company’s “New Forever” range of cars and SUVs.
Tata’s electric vehicle sales grew to 5,592 units in Q3 FY22 (growth of 345% vs Q3 FY21). EV sales also touched 10,000 units in 9MFY22 and crossed 2,000 monthly sales landmark for the first time in December 2021 (2,255 units).
Chandra said, “Going forward, semi-conductor supplies will remain the key source of uncertainty. Additionally, the impact of the new strain of Covid needs to be closely tracked. We will continue to work on business agility plan and take proactive actions to mitigate these risks.”
SUV major M&M sold 17,722 PVs in Dec 2021, up 10% Y-o-Y while Skoda India’s sales in December 2021 grew by 148% to 3,234 units. However, MG Motor and Honda Cars India reported slump in December 2021 sales.