Maruti Suzuki India expects to achieve double-digit retail sales growth across the full festive season spanning Onam through Diwali, supported by higher SUV production and stable demand during Navratri, according to a senior company executive.
The passenger vehicle market leader reported that total deliveries from the start of the Onam period through Dussehra grew 30 percent year on year, while sales between Ganesh Chaturthi and Dussehra rose 35 percent.
Deliveries during the Navratri period remained near prior-year levels at 98 percent, offsetting a broader 21.9 percent year-on-year drop in industry-wide passenger vehicle registrations reported by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) due to a high base in the previous year.
Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer for Marketing and Sales at Maruti Suzuki, said to PTI, "Maruti Suzuki will have double-digit growth in the whole festival season."
"With this strong demand momentum, we expect the positive trend to continue and anticipate double-digit growth for the whole festive period till Diwali," he added.
The growth was driven by a doubling of SUV volumes along with a 16 to 17 percent increase in small-car deliveries between Ganesh Chaturthi and Dussehra. The automaker also saw its order backlog expand by 70,000 vehicles to 270,000 units during the month.
"For small cars, our growth from Ganesh Chaturthi to Dussehra is to the tune of 16-17%. SUV volumes have doubled because we have been able to increase the supplies of Victoris and the Brezza," Banerjee said.