Fuel Price Hike, Supply Chain Disruption Hurt Festive Sales

Supply chain disruptions and fuel price hikes have hurt festive sales in a big way as most auto majors posted decline in sales in October.

- Ritwik Sinha

Further, rise in input cost also forced manufacturers to raise prices, which has furthered the slowdown in sales.

A total of 260,162 units were sold in October 2021, down 22 percent as compared to 333,981 units in October last year.

Normally, festive sales account for almost 40 percent of the annual sales. Wholesales (sales from carmakers to dealers) in October 2021 stood at 258,774 units, down a substantial 21 percent as compared to 325,965 units in October 2020.

Maruti Suzuki

The country’s largest passenger car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) posted a total sales (domestic + exports) stood at 138,335 units, down by 24.2 percent as compared to 182,448 units in the corresponding month last year.

In October 2021, total sales include domestic sales of 112,788 units, sales to other OEM of 4,225 units and its highest ever monthly exports of 21,322 units.

While the shortage of electronic components continued to affect the production of vehicles during the month, the company took measures to minimise the impact helping it sell more vehicles than what was expected at the start of the month.

In the domestic market, the sales figures comprise 21,831 units from the mini segment, which includes the Alto and S-Presso. The compact segment registered sales of 48,690 units. The compact space includes the Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift, Tour S, and WagonR.

The company’s mid-size sedan Ciaz could find only 1,069 buyers in October. The utility vehicle segment, which comprises the Ertiga, Gypsy, S-Cross, Vitara Brezza, and XL6, registered sales of 27,081 units.

On the other hand, a total of 10,320 copies of the Eeco were sold last month.