Year-end discounts and upcoming price hikes pep up India vehicle sales in December

As 2014 drew to a close, carmakers had to handle a rush of buyers, more so as the government decided not to continue with the extension of excise duty sops, which will hike vehicle prices by an average of 4-6 percent. Typically, December is a month when buyers in India postpone vehicle purchases to the new year but the last month of 2014 seems to have been different.

While the entire industry sales data for December will be available later this month, some automakers have revealed their numbers for the month.

Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest carmaker, has sold a total of 11,52,128 cars in calendar year 2014, up 8.29 percent over sales in 2013 (10,63,964), its highest ever in a colander year before this. Just before Christmas, Maruti had given a clue to the numbers it was set to clock, pointing out to a figure of 1.48 lakh cars in CY2014. Clearly, Indian consumers’ last-minute rush to buy Marutis before the year was out has given a fillip to the numbers.

In December 2014, the company posted an overall sales increase of 13.3 percent with sales of 98,109 units (December 2013: 86,613). Its passenger cars notched a growth of 11.5 percent, with 81,564 cars going home to new buyers (December 2013: 73,155). While the Alto and Wagon R saw a dip of 9.6 percent and sales of 34,625 units (December 2013: 38,286), the quartet of compact cars (Swift, Ritz, Celerio and Dzire) saw handsome growth of 23 percent on sales of 41,532 units (December 2013: 33,766), with the AMT-equipped Celerio clearly driving up volumes in this segment. The Celerio continues to have a waiting period of 14-odd weeks for delivery. The premium Ciaz sedan, which was launched in October 2014, sold the bulk of the 3,731 units recorded in the midsize segment (along with the outgoing SX4) and has a waiting period of 2-3 months. Meanwhile, of Maruti’s UVs, the Ertiga and the Gypsy together sold 5,774 units (December 2013: 5,146), up 12.2 percent year on year. On the vans front, Maruti sold a total of 10,771 units, up 29.6 percent (December 2013: 8.312), proving that demand for the Omni and Eeco continues to be there, particularly in Tier 2 and 3 towns.

Hyundai Motor India recorded domestic sales of 32,504 units last month, up 14.7 percent (December 2013: 28,345). Commenting on the December sales, Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice-president (Sales and Marketing), HMIL, said, “In the challenging market conditions of CY 2014, Hyundai did an all-time record high sales of 4.11 lakh units with all-time high projected market share of 21.8 percent in passenger cars.”

Mahindra & Mahindra’s passenger vehicles division (which includes utility vehicles and the Verito) sold a total of 17,311 units in December 2014, registering a growth of 5 percent (December 2013: 16,436). Speaking on the monthly sales, Pravin Shah, chief executive, Automotive Division & International Operations (AFS), M&M, said : “We are happy to have achieved a growth of 5 for our passenger vehicle segment in December with 2014 being an immensely challenging year for the auto industry. The industry, which was showing early signs of recovery, would however be severely impacted by the withdrawal of the excise duty concessional rate which would affect overall business sentiment, as it will lead to an increase in vehicle prices.  At Mahindra, we continue to remain optimistic going forward on the back of our new product launches during 2015”.  

Meanwhile, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) sold 11,740 units in December 2014, posting a growth of 10 percent (December 2013: 10, 648). It also exported 1,888 units of the Etios series in the month. According to N Raja, director and senior vice-president (sales and marketing), “In continuation of the November upswing, we have registered growth in the domestic and overall sales in December as well. This momentum can be attributed to the year ending.” As regards the discontinuation of excise duty concessions, he added, “We will study the market reaction and announce the price revision of our products accordingly. We would have expected the government to continue the excise duty concessions as this was supporting the revival of the auto industry after a rather sluggish two years. We hope that government would give deeper consideration for the next fiscal Budget on structural reforms for the auto sector which is an important part of the ‘Make in India’ campaign.”