SUV allure lifts PV sales beyond 4 mn

Costlier models, pricier inputs lift average vehicle prices by 10%

Consumers flocked to sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to drive passenger vehicle (PV) sales beyond four million in 2023, a top industry executive said, as they continued to disengage from sedans and hatchbacks. This, even as the vehicles themselves turned costlier by an average of 10% during the year.

Over two million SUVs were sold last year, fetching 49% of total sales compared to 42% in 2022, said Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director at Maruti Suzuki, the country's top carmaker. According to Srivastava, the average PV carried a price tag of 1.5 lakh in 2023, 40% more than 18.2 lakh in 2019, and 9.5% higher than 10.5 lakh in 2022.

Apart from higher production costs due to costlier inputs and mandatory safety tech, a higher share of costlier SUVs and customer preference for top models have also been driving up average purchase prices in 2023.

A total of 287,904 passenger vehicles were dispatched from factories to dealerships in December, Srivastava said, the highest ever for the month, crossing the previous record of 276,000 units in December 2020.

This was also a 4.4% growth over last year's dispatches of 275,680 units.

At Maruti Suzuki, December dispatches fell 6.5% to 104,778 units from a year earlier, while Tata Motors' dispatches rose 8.6% to 43,470, and Mahindra & Mahindra's increased 23.7% to 35,174. Some manufacturers including Toyota and Kia are yet to release their December numbers.