Riding The Festive Tide

Automakers are no longer staring at huge idle capacities, but are firing on all cylinders.

- Chanchal Pal Chauhan

The festive season is here, and for the first time since 2012, auto manufacturers of all hues – especially passenger vehicle and two-wheeler makers – are celebrating. Already, September has yielded bumper sales and with the entire Navaratri period culminating in Dussehra, as well as Diwali, falling in October, this month and succeeding ones can only be better still.

Manufacturers are gasping to fulfil demand. All five of passenger car market leader Maruti Suzuki’s plants in the Gurgaon-Manesar manufacturing hub are working to full capacity. The company has delayed the launch of its new compact SUV Ignis to make more Balenos and Brezzas and thereby reduce the long waiting periods for these models. Hyundai’s Elantra sedan has booked 1,100 orders within a month of its debut in August, while its all new SUV Tuscan will hit the market in late October.

In two-wheelers, the industry achieved an all-time high production of 10 million units in the first six months of 2016/17, and expects the second half of the year to be still more buoyant. Overall sales rose 17 per cent in the first half of 2016/17. Sales were actually negative (-0.36 per cent)in the same period last fiscal. “Market sentiment has improved throughout the country,” says Pawan Munjal, Chairman and CEO of market leader HeroMoto Corp. “We will have 15 launches this year, three of them in the festive season.”