Car and sport utility vehicle (SUV) sales during the Navratri period this year remained flat compared to last year at around 220,000 units. However, last year’s Navratri was spread between two months making the comparison inappropriate, said a senior executive from the automotive industry.
Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer, marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki India said, “The first three days in last year’s Navratri was during the month end and during every month end, regardless of that being auspicious or inauspicious, it is always a high retail period.”
Between Shraadh and Navratri-end, the total industry sales is estimated to have been 330,000, a growth of 16% year-on-year compared to 283,000 clocked last year.
“Between August 17 and the last day of Navratri, the total sale is estimated to be at 700,000 as against 583,000 units of last year. This means that so far, the festive season has seen a growth of 20%,” Srivastava added.
The passenger car industry is projected to witness sales of 1 million during this year’s festive season, which will be for the first time ever. Going by the sales clocked so far this year, the balance part of the season, that is between Dussera and Bhai Dooj (Diwali), the industry needs to do volumes of around 300,000 units to hit the 1 million milestone.
Tarun Garg, chief operating officer, Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) said, “During the ten-day Navratri-Dussehra period, HMIL dealers witnessed robust deliveries of around 30,000 units, reflecting an 8% YoY growth, consistent with year to date growth so far.”
Carmakers had hiked unit supplies to their dealers in the run up to the festive season so as to avoid missing out on demand coming in from the last-minute buyers. Last year, due to the long waiting periods, dealers had to turn away buyers looking for spot purchases. Therefore, this year the inventory levels had hit a five-year high.
“The inventory just before Shraadh was at its peak, crossing 400,000 units. I would expect it to be below 300,000, at around 290,000, by the end of Diwali,” Srivastava added. Maruti Suzuki has outstanding bookings of 265,000 units.
While for Hyundai the dealer inventory currently stands at 20 to 25 days, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), the apex lobby body of auto dealers, claimed that the inventory days had hit 65 days by the end of September.
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