Maruti’s festive-time growth at 19%; expects sales of 450K
NEW DELHI : Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country’s largest carmaker, is seeing a surge in deliveries as it fulfils long-standing orders for new models amid easing chip availability and high consumer interest during the ongoing festive season. The carmaker delivered over 310,000 units, a growth of 19% year-on-year in the 70-day period between 17 August, the start of the Chingam month, which kicks off Onam festivities in Kerala, and the end of the Navratri period on 24 October, a top company executive said.
While Maruti Suzuki did not make a formal estimate of its expected sales leading up to Diwali, people familiar with the development said that the company may be targeting sales of over 140,000 units between Dussehra and Bhai Dooj, which follows two days after Diwali, totalling 450,000 units. That will be 21% higher than last year’s festive season sales of 370,000 units.
While Maruti Suzuki’s pending vehicle bookings have reduced to 215,000 units towards the end of October, total open orders in the industry currently stand close to 500,000 units. “Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) accounted for about 26-27% of our sales during this period, primarily due to a large number of pending books being delivered now as our supplies improve.
The Jimny was launched only towards the end of June, and production in the first couple of months was not very high. Now that we are ramping up, we are seeing sales for our SUV models go up," said Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director at Maruti Suzuki.
“We saw a 14% growth in new bookings during this time as well." The trend of increased SUV sales is seen across the industry, with these models making up 49% of the total passenger vehicle sales during the festive season so far. The
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