Maruti Suzuki logs best sales in ongoing fiscal: 148,380 units

The winds of positivity are blowing in favour of the Indian automobile industry and the tailwinds of an improving economy are reflecting in the demand for passenger vehicles. Reason why PV market leader has reported its best monthly sales in the six months of the ongoing fiscal year.

The company’s September 2022 wholesales of 148,380 units, depict 135% YoY growth but that has come on a year-ago sales of 63,111 units. Due to a massive shortage of semiconductors, Maruti Suzuki had slashed production by 60% in September 2021, which in turn led to a 57% YoY decline in sales.

Demand looks to be strong across its portfolio. While it wouldn’t be correct to compare YoY growth with the truncated sales of September 2021’s, a comparison with August 2022 number offers more clarity.

In September 2022, the entry level duo of the Alto and S-Presso account for 29,574 units, up 33% (August 2022: 22,162 units). Its six-pack comprising the Baleno, Celerio, Dzire (and Tour S), Ignis, Swift and Wagon R contributed 72,176 units, which is flat sales – 0.86% – versus August 2022’s 71,557 units.

The UVs – new Brezza, Ertiga, S-Cross, XL6 and the new Grand Vitara – contributed 32,574 units, up 21% on August 2022’s 26,932 units. This strong double-digit growth can be attributed to the demand for the recently launched Grand Vitara and also the new Brezza.

The premium Ciaz sedan remains a worry of sorts for Maruti Suzuki – its September tally of 1,359 units is down 37% month on month (August 2022: 2,146 units). In fact, it is the sole sub-category where the company also sees a cumulative sales decline: 6,926 units in the April-September 2022 period versus 7,095 units in H1 FY2022 – down 2.38 YoY. Meanwhile, the Eeco van sold 12,697 units, up 5.81% on August 2022’s 11,999 units.

Production ramped up to meet huge demand
Maruti Suzuki continues to have a ‘problem of plenty’ given that as of early September, the company had cumulative pending orders of over 400,000 units.

The continued surge of demand for SUVs has seen the new Grand Vitara draw over 53,000 bookings, with almost 43% or 23,000 of them for the strong-hybrid trims. The new Brezza, launched on June 30 at Rs 799,000, is also a top draw and as of end-August, had an estimated 70,000 pending bookings and the premium Baleno hatchback had 38,000 units.

CNG models – Alto, S-Presso, Wagon R, Celerio, Dzire, Ertiga, Eeco, Super Carry and Tour-S and more recently the Swift – account for an estimated 125,000 units of the backlog. Popular buys like the Wagon R, Swift, Baleno and Ertiga also occupy maximum waiting periods which are now coming down.

That’s because the company has ramped up production and manufacturing capacity utilisation is touching 94 percent across its plants in Gurgaon, Manesar and Suzuki Motor Corp-owned facility in Gujarat. 

Maruti Suzuki has a vehicle manufacturing capacity of 2.3 million units per annum. This comprises 700,000 units at Plant 1 (Gurgaon) in two shifts at two assembly facilities, 880,000 units at Plant 2 (Manesar) in two shifts at three assembly facilities, and 750,000 units at Plant 3 (SMG plant at Hansalpur, Gujarat).