India’s largest carmaker registered a 1.2 percent year-on-year uptick in Q1 FY25 sales that culminated in June at 419,000 units.
01 Jul 2024 | 2794 Views | By Mayank Dhingra
India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) reported domestic sales of 137,160 units in June 2024, registering a nominal 3.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth over 133,027 units clocked in the same month last year. The company says that while subdued, its growth performance is in line with the FY25 outlook ...
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India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) reported domestic sales of 137,160 units in June 2024, registering a nominal 3.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth over 133,027 units clocked in the same month last year. The company says that while subdued, its growth performance is in line with the FY25 outlook of a 3-5 percent industry growth projection, owing to a large base-year effect.
At 419,114 units, MSIL’s Q1 FY25 – April-to-June 2024 – quarterly volumes also remained largely flat –registering a 1.2 percent YoY growth (Q1 FY24: 414,055). The company says it is currently witnessing a retail stock ranging between 37 and 38 days, while its total order book by end-June stands at approximately 164,000 units.
The sales of the company’s entry-level cars – Alto and S-Presso – continued to be on the decline, clocking 9,395 units in June, and 30,816 units in the first quarter, and registering significant de-growth of 33.15 percent, and 23.72 percent, respectively.
MSIL’s range of compact cars, including the Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, WagonR, and the newly-launched fourth-generation Swift remained flat in June with sales culminating at 64,049 units last month (June 2023: 64,471). The performance of these hatchbacks in the Q1, however, declined 10 percent to 189,208 units (Q1 FY24: 210,825). The company says the new Swift has been performing well, and has so far gone home to 35,815 customers, with strong demand coming from across metros, and Tier-2 towns.
“The initial data shows that the response to the new Swift has been quite positive. Young customers in their late 20s and early 30s are the ones who are coming forward towards the Swift, which has traditionally also been known for its sporty appeal. The response is quite uniform, and is not only coming from big cities, but from Tier-2 towns as well,” said Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, MSIL.
It is the utility vehicles which saved the blemishes for the No. 1 carmaker in the previous months, with the septet of the Brezza, Ertiga, Fronx, Jimny, Grand Vitara, XL6 and Invicto registering volumes of 52,373 units in June, and registering a notable 21 percent YoY increase in sales (June 2023: 43,404). In Q1 FY25, UVs registered a significant 29 percent YoY growth with total sales of 163,130 units (Q1 FY24: 126,401).
High temperatures, heated elections kept buyers away
According to Banerjee, the soaring temperatures in several parts of the country over the last couple of months, accompanied by the heated national elections in different phases in the country over the last few weeks, meant that buyers chose to stay away from visiting showrooms. “We therefore took special measures like extending the working hours of our dealerships to facilitate new car sales in cooler weather during the evening,” he said.
To give a strong momentum to its dulling entry-level cars, MSIL has extended its special limited edition ‘Dream Series’ offer on the Alto, S-Presso, and Celerio for the month of July as well, and is confident of gaining good volumes from these cars. The company claims having received over 21,000 bookings of its entry-level trio under this special scheme introduced last month.
While MSIL says that discounts will depend on each model, and vary from market to market, it will continue to explore more limited-edition options to boost its volumes. The company believes that while its 38-day inventory is slightly above normal, it is still not too far away from the reasonable levels of 30 days. “With monsoon forecast being above normal, and good projections for the Kharif crop, we are bullish about the momentum going forward,” Banerjee said.
While the Swift went home to 16,422 buyers to emerge as the top-selling Maruti Suzuki model last month, the Ertiga was at No. 2 at 15,902 units, followed by the Baleno at 14,895 units. Jimny, on the other hand, only clocked 481 units, while the Ciaz mid-size sedan went home to 572 buyers.