Maruti Suzuki leads the charge in a GST- driven PV market in July

Maruti Suzuki India, the bellwether of the Indian passenger vehicle industry, has reported handsome sales numbers for July 2017, the first month since the reformative GST kicked in. If pre-GST jitters had gripped the industry and consumers in June, then July numbers herald good times to come in the months and year ahead.

The company has announced total domestic sales of 154,001 units for July 2017, up 22.4 percent (July 2016: 125,778). With plenty of manufacturing capacity on hand, now that the Gujarat plant is humming away smoothly, the carmaker is firing on all cylinders feeding the domestic market with all it can absorb. If July numbers are any indication, then expect Maruti to keep crossing the 150,000 unit sales mark month after month.

Importantly, for the company, the sales growth is across all vehicle segments – cars, utility vehicles and vans. The entry level duo of the Alto and Wagon R sold a good 42,310 units, up 20.7 percent (Junly 2016: 35,051), indicating that demand for these two popular hatchbacks remains as strong as ever.

The company’s six compact cars comprising the Swift, Ritz, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno and Dzire sold 63,116 units, up 25.3 percent (July 2016: 50,362). The Ciaz premium sedan, which is now sold only from the premium Nexa channel, sold a total of 6,377 units, up 41 percent YoY (July 2016: 5,162).

The two vans – Omni and Eeco – sold 15,714 units, down 6.6 percent (July 2016: 14,748).

Sales of Maruti UVs (Gypsy, Ertiga, Vitara Brezza, S-Cross) crossed the 25,000 unit mark for the first time in a month, up 48.3 percent to 25,781 units (July 2016: 17,382). Like the other OEMs with SUVs, expect Maruti to continue riding the huge wave of SUV demand in the coming albeit with the upcoming entry of the Tata Nexon and Jeep Compass, some demand could go their way. 

 Also read : Tata Nexon guns for a big slice of the compact SUV market