Passenger vehicle (PV) sales fell sharply this Navratri season compared to last year owing to a high base effect. As per data shared by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), 1.83 lakh PVs were sold during Navratri 2026, down 22% year-on-year but up 10% compared to Navratri 2024 sales.
“Navratri’26 tells a fundamentally healthy story. At nearly 11.23 lakh units over ten days, retails are up close to 27% over Navratri’24 — the last truly comparable festive period — with PV higher by over 10% and Two-Wheelers by more than 32%,” said FADA President Sai Giridhar. He added that the marginal 6.52% dip versus Navratri 2025 is largely optical as last year Navratri ran eleven days against ten and coincided with the GST 2.0 roll-out, which pulled a wave of pent-up demand into one extraordinary window.
Overall automobile sales, including 2W, commercial vehicles, tractors and 3W, fell 6.5% to 11.23 lakhs in the 10-day Navratri period. While PVs registered the steepest decline, 2W (two-wheeler) sales in the 10-day period fell 2.79% y-o-y to 8.34 lakh units.
Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) said that between Ganesh Chaturthi and Dussehra, MSIL’s retail sales grew by 35%, with small-car retail increasing by around 16% and SUV retail doubling. “Our retail sales during the Navratri period is almost same as last year. We began October with pending bookings of around 2 lakh units, which have increased to 2.7 lakh units after Dussehra,” added Banerjee.
Banerjee expects the positive trend to continue and anticipate double-digit growth for the whole festive period till Diwali.
Tarun Garg, MD & CEO at Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) said that during Shradh and Navratri, they witnessed registrations grow by 30% YoY to nearly 41,000 units.
“Considering the pace of bookings, we expect momentum to continue through Dhanteras and Diwali. Demand remains healthy across both urban and rural markets. We are also seeing a strong customer interest in our new name plate, Hyundai BAYON, which will be launched early next week,” added Garg.
Amit Kamat, Chief Commercial Officer, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (TMPV) said that the response during Navratri has been particularly encouraging, with over 50,000 vehicles delivered during this festive period, including more than 10,000 on Dussehra alone.
“We have stepped up production and sharpened logistics to improve availability of high-demand models and variants. With a healthy booking pipeline and the celebrations building towards Diwali, we look forward to carrying this strong momentum through the festive season,” added Kamat.
