Maruti Suzuki clocks 134,158 units in November, UVs register 51 percent growth

Maruti Suzuki India, the bellwether of India’s passenger vehicle (PV) segment, has clocked sales of 134,158 units in November, registering  nominal 1.36 percent year-on-year growth over sales of 132,395 units in the same month last year.

While its entry-level duo of Alto and S-Presso continued to remain on a downfall, registering a de-growth of over 45 percent by going home to 9,959 buyers (November 2022: 18,251). The pack of compact models, including the Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift, Tour S, and WagonR clocked sales of 64,679 units, de-growing by 11 percent over November 2022’s sales of 72,844 units.

However, MSIL’s utility vehicles (UVs), including the Brezza, Ertiga, Fronx, Grand Vitara, Invicto, Jimny, S-Cross, and XL6 emerged as the saviours for the company’s sales with cumulative sales of 49,016 units, registering notable growth of 50.53 percent.

The carmaker’s Ciaz sedan clocked only 278 units (November 2022: 1,554 / -82.11%) last month, while the Eeco van registered a 42.36 percent year-on-year growth to clock sales of 10,226 units (November 2022: 7,183).

In terms of cumulative sales, the company has despatched 1,175,312 units in the first eight months of FY24, registering a 10.12 percent year-on-year uptick. With sales of some of its key hatchback models on the decline, MSIL continued to offer attractive consumer schemes ranging Rs 17,000 to Rs 68,000 that were brought in from October into November as well.

According to Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Sales & Marketing, MSIL, “Seven out of Top 10-best-selling models in November were from MSIL and we registered a 14 percent year-on-year growth in retail sales to 130,600 units last month over 114,700 units sold in November 2022. This has taken our market share up from 41.1 percent in the first eight months of FY23 to 42.1 percent in FY24 so far.”

“However, there has been a drop in retails and bookings, particularly after the festive season that ended mid-November, but bookings for MSIL continued to remain up by 7 percent last month,” he added.

Srivastava cautioned that while the stock levels in the industry are pegged at 30-35 days of inventory with a cumulative estimate of 330,000 units, degrowing slightly from 335,000 units at start of November, the channel inventory is expected to come down significantly by end-December owing to aggressive schemes likely from manufacturers. Sales promotions will be higher in December and depending on model to model, one is likely to see higher discounts.”

“Companies will need to be careful, plan production, and wholesales accordingly in December to balance the situation,” he pointed out.

Despite the onset of demand moderation in passenger vehicle sales, MSIL is confident of the industry achieving cumulative sales of 41.3 lakh units by end-FY24, and registering a 6 percent year-on-year uptick over 38.96 lakh units clocked in FY23. “This will be the highest-ever sales in a financial year despite the sluggishness in the PV segment. The only worrying bit is the existing channel stock level,” he said.

MSIL's current order backlog stands at around 226,000 units, with almost 67,000 units for its Ertiga MPV.