The country's largest carmaker faces mounting pressure in the SUV segment with sales falling to 48,695 units from 61,549 units, even as exports surge and the company banks on new launches to revive demand.
01 Oct 2025 | 4409 Views | By Prerna Lidhoo & Kiran Murali
Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, sees a year-on-year decline for the fourth straight month in the UV (utility vehicle) segment despite the festive season boost, underlining rising competition in the country's fastest-growing passenger vehicle segment. In September 2025, Maruti's UV segment–that includes models like Brezza, Ertiga, Fronx, Grand Vitara, Invicto, ...
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Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, sees a year-on-year decline for the fourth straight month in the UV (utility vehicle) segment despite the festive season boost, underlining rising competition in the country's fastest-growing passenger vehicle segment. In September 2025, Maruti's UV segment–that includes models like Brezza, Ertiga, Fronx, Grand Vitara, Invicto, Jimny and XL6–fell to 48,695 units, a sharp 21% drop from 61,549 units in the same month last year. This follows similar year-on-year declines in August (54,043 vs. 62,684), July (52,773 vs. 56,302), and June (47,947 vs. 52,373).
While Maruti has gained ground in small cars and exports, its SUV portfolio faces intensifying pressure from rivals such as Hyundai, Tata Motors, and Mahindra. The company said that dispatches in September were partly affected by logistical constraints, with many SUV units still in transit.
Maruti Suzuki's Senior Executive Officer for Marketing & Sales, Partho Banerjee, said that the company is betting on its new mid-size SUV Victaris and festive season sales to revive demand. "The green shoots have started appearing. We have already retailed 1,65,000 vehicles in the Navratri period. So, with vehicles reaching the market faster, we see that further traction is going to come," he said.
He added that the SUV segment, in particular, is witnessing notable growth. "The retails of SUVs in the April to Aug period for Maruti have grown by 32%. Victaris is getting good bookings of 25,000 with a waiting of 10 weeks. For Grand Vitara we are getting almost 500 bookings per day. We are ramping up our production. We need some wait in the mid SUV segment because availability right now is a challenge," he adds.
He expects the current 27.5% festive season growth to stabilize at around 6-7% in the long term. "The growth right now is due to pent-up demand and a positive response to festive season incentives, signaling a potentially strong start to the auto industry's next growth cycle," he adds.
Maruti Suzuki's sales in September 2025 stood at 189,665 units, marginally higher than 184,727 units in the same month last year, supported by stronger exports and OEM sales even as domestic passenger vehicle volumes fell.
Domestic passenger vehicle sales dropped to 132,820 units from 144,962 units in September 2024, with sharp declines in utility vehicles (48,695 vs. 61,549), while the compact segment remained a bright spot with 66,882 units, up from 60,480. In the April–September 2025 period, Maruti's total sales (domestic + exports) rose to 1,078,735 units, compared to 1,063,418 units a year ago, largely on the back of record exports of 207,459 units, up sharply from 148,276 units in the year-ago period, offsetting the weakness in domestic UV sales.