November auto sales see spurt in sales

 Pune: Sales of passenger vehicles continued on an impressive run in November with major automakers posting a rise in sales except Tata Motors, which clocked a marginal drop in sales.

Sales of passenger vehicles at Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest carmaker grew 1.33 per cent at 1,34,158 units last month compared to 1,32,395 units in November 2022.

Automakers count vehicle dispatches from their factory gates to dealerships as sales. However, some provide retail sales data.

“Seven out of top 10-best-selling models in November were from Maruit and we registered a 14 per cent year-on-year growth in retail sales to 130,600 units last month over 114,700 units sold in November 2022. This has taken our market share up from 41.1 per cent in the first eight months of FY23 to 42.1 per cent in FY24 so far,” said Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, at Maruti Suzuki.  

“However, there has been a drop in retails and bookings, particularly after the festive season that ended mid-November, but bookings for Maruti Suzuki continued to remain up by 7 per cent last month,” he pointed out.

Its archrival Hyundai Motor said its domestic sales increased by 3 per cent year-on-year to 49,451 units in November. The automaker had sold 64,003 units to dealers in November 2022. “Our SUV line-up continues to exhibit robust momentum, contributing over 60 per cent to our overall sales. Our latest addition to SUVs, Hyundai EXTER has achieved a major milestone of 1 lakh bookings,” said Tarun Garg, COO, Hyundai Motor India.

Tata Motors’ sales of passenger vehicles, including electric vehicles, were marginally down 1 per cent at 46,143 units compared with 46,425 units sold in the year-ago month.

Sales of utility vehicles at Mahindra & Mahindra jumped 32 per cent year-on-year to 39,981 units last month, up from 30,392 units in the year-ago period. “We continue our growth trend, backed by strong demand for our SUV portfolio,” said Veejay Nakra, President, Automotive Division, M&M.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor reported 51 per cent growth in sales at 17,818 units in November 2023 as compared to the year-ago month. "We recorded a strong festive season with healthy bookings, and we are extremely thrilled to see the market responding very positively to our entire product range,” said Atul Sood, Vice President of Sales and Strategic Marketing at TKM.

Honda Cars has registered a 24 per cent year-on-year sales growth of 8,730 units in November. "Our product line-up saw a good surge in demand throughout the festive period. Our new SUV Elevate has been well received by the market with very high customer consideration. We are confident to carry forward this growth momentum for the rest of the year,” Yuichi Murata, Director, Marketing & Sales, HCIL.

Retail sales at MG Motor stood at 4,154 units last month, with EV sales continuing to account for around 30 per cent of the total vehicles sold.