Car Sales Yet To Pick Up Ahead Festivities

Ahead of festivities like Diwali and Dhanteras, India’s motown is still expecting the market to pick up as October 2018 sales were bland and couldn’t bring on a smile for a lot many automobile manufacturers.

- Ritwik Sinha

Major car-makers like Maruti and Honda have seen flat or marginal growth, while Toyota suffered a sales degrowth.

The country’s largest passenger car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), sold a total of 146,766 units in October 2018. This includes 138,100 units in the domestic market and 8,666 units of exports. Sales of the company saw a marginal growth of 0.2 percent compared to the same month last year.

In the domestic market, MSI sold 138,100 units in October 2018 as compared to 136,000 units despatched in the same month a year ago, witnessing a growth of 1.5 percent.

Exports, however, declined 17 percent at 8,666 units during the month under review as compared to 10,446 units in October 2017.

The company last year had shown a 9.3 percent growth during the month of Dussehra. However, it could not replicate that growth this time around. Maruti Suzuki’s sales have been growing marginally and it looks like the beginning of the festive season has not brought in the numbers for the company.

The Alto and WagonR continued to post positive sales for the company with that segment growing by 1.1 percent. The new generation Swift and even the Dzire raked in good sales with the compact segment growing by 3.7 percent. Sales in the segment of the Swift and the Dzire saw a growth of 3.7 percent

Sales of passenger cars saw a growth of 2.5 percent at 101,516 units this October against 99,077 units in the same month of last year. Sadly, the facelift of the Ciaz has n’t been able to bring in the expected hike in sales for the company. Maruti Suzuki sold just 3,892 units in October 2018 compared to 4,107 units during the same month last year. The sales of the Ciaz degrew by 5.2 percent.