Car Sales Pick Up During Festive Season: Deliveries At Peak During Dhanteras

According to Economic Times Auto, The increase in sales comes months after sales have continuously dropped by double digits during the months between April to September. Two-wheeler haven’t seen as much of a festive increase, however performance has improved over previous months.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited and Hyundai India registered a 7 per cent and a 10 percent growth respectively, during the Navratri and Dussehera period. Deliveries made on Dhanteras exceeded growth from the last year. Mahindra registered a 100 per cent increase in sales of utility vehicles on Dhanteras.

Maruti Suzuki delivered over 60,000 cars during the 10 day period between Navratri and Dussehera. Hyundai Motor delivered over 25,000 cars. Dhanteras saw the companies deliver over 45,000 cars and roughly 14,000 cars respectively.

Mr Shashank Srivastava, the Executive Director for Sales & Marketing at Maruti Suzuki, said, “The absolute retails in Navratri and Dussehera were higher than 10-day festivities in the previous year and the momentum has continued for Dhanteras.”

“There is definitely a much better sentiment in the market place, but one can also say that market has revived only after seeing the momentum in the next few months,” he added.

The festive season that starts with Navratri and ends with Diwali accounts for double the monthly average (of the year) in terms of sales for two and four-wheelers. A majority of the demand is from the North East (55 percent).

Mr Vikas Jain, the Head of National Sales at Hyundai Motor India, said, “Compared to last year, the retail is up by 30% approximately on Dhanteras. While in October things have looked up compared to last month, compared to October 2018, industry will still be negative by 7 to 8%. Also, this time all segments have moved up. And other positive is both urban and rural markets have grown.”

Demand has increased in the luxury segment as well. Mercedes Benz delivered 200 cars during the Navratri and Dussehera period, and sold an additional 600 units on Dhanteras. The company announced that its GLE SUV is sold out for three months. BMW India said its X7 SUV was sold out.

a and MG Motors delivered about 3,000 vehicles between them on Dhanteras.

The two-wheeler front saw Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto say that market decline had been contained over the last month and that retail sales have started showing positive signs. Hero MotoCorp has witnessed slow, single-digit growth during the festive season.

Thoughts About The Positive Growth During The Festive Season

This is good news for the industry. However, sales were expected to go up during the festivities. There isn’t enough to predict if the growth will continue after the festive season. We think sales will drop after the Diwali period and will rise again sometime during February next year.