Motown Plagued By Low Demand In July

Demand distress seems to be plaguing car sales for the fourth consecutive month of the current fiscal.

- Ritwik Sinha

Owing to weak consumer sentiments across all segments in July 2019 both in the urban and rural regions most leading car makers saw dip in year-on-year sales figures. In fact, inventory pile up owing to the dearth in demand has forced OEMs to schedule plant shutdowns and production cuts in June and July. None of the leading car makers was able to register a growth in July 2019.

The country’s largest passenger car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) sold a total of 109,264 units in July 2019. This includes 98,210 units in domestic market, 1,796 units of domestic OEM sales and 9,258 units of exports.

Exports during July 2019 fell 9.4 percent to 9,258 units as against 10,219 units a year ago, pushing down Maruti’s total sales by 33.5 percent to 109,264 units as against 164,369 units sold in July 2018.

During April-July, 2019 total sales (domestic + exports) stood at 511,858 units, down 21.8 percent as against 654,848 units.

Except for the mid-sized sedan segment, which includes the Ciaz, all other passenger car segments registered a huge decline in sales. The mini segment (Alto and Old WagonR) was the worst hit, with sales declining by 69.3 percent. The Compact segment -- which is Maruti’s biggest segment by sales with cars like WagonR, Celerio, Ignis, Swift, Baleno and Dzire – saw sales falling by 22.7 percent.

Sales of utility segment cars Gypsy, Ertiga, Vitara Brezza and S-Cross also declined 38.1 percent in July, while the Vans segment (Omni, Eeco) sales fell 37.9 percent. Light commercial vehicle super carry sales inched up 0.5 percent.

Combined sales of mini and compact car segment was worst hit as it recorded a fall of over 38 percent in sales when compared with July 2018 numbers.

Within the segment, sales of mini cars, including Alto and Old WagonR, witnessed sharpest de-growth of 69.3 percent at 11,577 units from 37,710 units in July 2019, MSI said.