NEW DELHI: India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) sold fewer cars in the first month of fiscal 2022-23 as against the same month last fiscal. MSIL domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales stood at 121,995 units in April 2022 compared to 135,879 units sold in April 2021. The carmaker’s April 2022 sales is even lower than its March 2022 sales when it had dispatched 1,33,861 units in the domestic PV market.
“The shortage of electronic components had a minor impact on the production of vehicles, mainly domestic models. The Company took all possible measures to minimise the impact,” repeated MSIL in a regulatory filing on Sunday.
The carmaker on Friday had informed that production during FY22 was impacted by shortage of electronic components by an estimated 270,000 vehicles and that it had pending customer bookings of about 268,000 vehicles at the end of the year.
The sharp plunge in April sales for MSIL also comes as demand for smaller cars continue to hit new lows. MSIL’s mini and compact segment sales last month stood at 76,321 units as against 97,359 units in April 2021.
Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R.C. Bhargava said on Friday, “There’s no butter in small cars anymore. We will have to change our strategy. People with limited income are getting squeezed out of the car market due to higher cost...The market for hatchbacks is shrinking significantly.”