Maruti sells 11.52 lakh cars in 2014, its highest ever in a calendar year

As 2014 drew to a close, carmakers particularly Maruti Suzuki had to handle a rush of buyers, more so as the government decided not to continue with the extension of excise duty sops, which will hike vehicle prices by 4-6 percent. Typically, December is a month when buyers in India postpone vehicle purchases to the new year but the last month of 2014 seems to have been different.

Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest carmaker, has sold a total of 11,52,128 cars in calendar year 2014, up 8.29 percent over sales in 2013 (10,63,964), its highest ever in a calendar year before this. Just before Christmas, Maruti had given a clue to the numbers it was set to clock, pointing out to a figure of 1.48 lakh cars in CY2014. Clearly, Indian consumers’ last-minute rush to buy Marutis before the year was out has given a fillip to the numbers.

In December 2014, the company posted an overall sales increase of 13.3 percent with sales of 98,109 units (December 2013: 86,613). Its passenger cars notched a growth of 11.5 percent, with 81,564 cars going home to new buyers (December 2013: 73,155). While the Alto and Wagon R saw a dip of 9.6 percent and sales of 34,625 units (December 2013: 38,286), the quartet of compact cars (Swift, Ritz, Celerio and Dzire) saw handsome growth of 23 percent on sales of 41,532 units (December 2013: 33,766), with the AMT-equipped Celerio clearly driving up volumes in this segment. The Celerio continues to have a waiting period of 14-odd weeks for delivery. The premium Ciaz sedan, which was launched in October 2014, sold the bulk of the 3,731 units recorded in the midsize segment (along with the outgoing SX4) and has a waiting period of 2-3 months. Meanwhile, of Maruti’s UVs, the Ertiga and the Gypsy together sold 5,774 units (December 2013: 5,146), up 12.2 percent year on year. On the vans front, Maruti sold a total of 10,771 units, up 29.6 percent (December 2013: 8.312), proving that demand for the Omni and Eeco continues to be there, particularly in Tier 2 and 3 towns.

Maruti Suzuki has improved its position in the domestic market, growing 4.1 percent at 44.8 percent between April-November 2014. This was against its market share of 40.7 percent in the corresponding period in 2013.

Interestingly, Maruti expects its diesel product portfolio to stabilise at about 30 percent in 2015 from 33 percent in the first half of FY 2014-15. The diesel portfolio of the overall automobile industry, which earlier stood at 58 percent, dropped to 53 percent during the year and now stands at 50 percent. This is due to the sharp fall in the price of petrol which has drawn consumers to petrol-engined cars and the downslide of international crude barrel prices to a four-year low. This year should see the industry diesel-petrol mix at 40:60.

Maruti, which did a fair bit of exports in December 2014, shipping 11,682 units, up 171 percent (December 2013: 4,311), is pushing its expansion in the overseas markets especially South Africa and Latin America with the total export contribution pegged at 10 percent of the total sales this year. Exports of the Ciaz kicked off in November 2014 with about 400 units shipped to Latin America. Overall, the carmaker has sold about 20,000 Ciaz cars since its launch in September 2014.

Meanwhile, like most automobile manufacturers in India, Maruti will be working out the price increases on its vehicles, following the discontinuation of the extension of excise duty sops first announced in February last year and then continued in June. As a result, excise duty on small cars, two-wheelers and commercial vehicles will now stand at 12 percent (up from 8 percent), for SUVs 30 percent (up from 24 percent), for midsized cars, 24 percent (from 20 percent) and for large cars, 27 percent (from 24 percent).