Car companies expect record sales this year on bumper festive demand

Automakers expect to close the year with sales of 4.10-4.17 million cars, utility vehicles and vans – 8-10% more than 2022 compared to the earlier estimate of about 0-6% growth – despite the high base of last year when sales had grown by 23% to 3.79 million units, several senior executives told ET.

Better-than-expected demand for sports utility vehicles (SUVs) at the more premium end of the market is driving the sales, they said.

“Despite the precarious geopolitical situation, demand momentum remains strong, indicating the resilience of the domestic market,” said Tarun Garg, chief operating officer (COO) at Hyundai Motor India. “The festival season has been good so far…order inflow remains healthy. We did our highest-ever deliveries this Dhanteras. We expect growth in the industry will be higher than what was estimated at the start of the year.” As many as 3.47 million passenger vehicles have been sold in the local market in the first 10 months of the year – an increase of about 9% over 3.19 million units sold in the same period last year.

New launches in the fast-growing SUV segment – from Maruti Suzuki Fronx to Hyundai Exter and Kia Seltos – have drawn in buyers, growing the segment share by more than 500 basis points to over 48% till October from about 43% in the corresponding period of last year.

“The festive season has been very positive this year,” said Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer (marketing and sales) at Maruti Suzuki. “In fact, for the first time, industry sales (during the festive season from Onam to Bhai Dooj) will cross one million mark. This represents growth of 18% over last year volumes of 850,000 units. This growth has all come on the back of demand for SUVs and MPVs, which now comprise nearly half of all passenger vehicles sold in the local market,” he said.It is estimated that between Dhanteras on Friday last and Bhai Dooj on Tuesday, industry deliveries would be in the range of 55,000 to 57,000 vehicles, which will be a growth of over 21%. Last year the industry had delivered around 45,000 units during this period.

Maruti Suzuki, which reports data on a fiscal year basis, expects sales in the local market to close at about at 4.14 million units in FY24, higher than the industry’s earlier estimate of 4.05-4.10 million units.

Hardeep Singh Brar, vice-president and national head (sales and marketing) at Kia India, said consumer demand has been strong in segments priced upwards of ₹7 lakh. “We, in fact, increased our production last month to reduce waiting on our products,” he told ET. “The industry has grown faster than expected by about 9% this year. We want to grow in line with the market to maintain our momentum and market share.”

Kia is expecting to grow sales by more than 8% to sell 275,000 units in 2023. The festive season will draw to a close with Bhai Dooj. But the upcoming wedding season in North India will support demand , industry watchers said.