Fuelled by GST cuts, car sales hit top gear in festival season

Domestic passenger vehicle (PV) wholesales in September rose 5.4 per cent year-on-year (Yo-Y) to 381,437 units, driven by the recent goods and services tax (GST) rate rationalisation and the onset of the festival season, according to industry officials.

- DEEPAK PATEL

But this surge has brought its own set of challenges: An industry wide logistical constraint, with carmakers struggling to move vehicles fast enough from factories to dealerships.

Retail sales could be even stronger. Industrywide volumes were estimated at nearly 400,000 units, compared with 320,000 a year earlier, said Partho Banerjee, Maruti Suzuki’s senior executive officer (marketing and sales), during a video press conference.

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, reported a 9.1 per cent jump in domestic wholesales to 144,962 units. Banerjee attributed this uptick to the GST shift and festive fervour. Bookings at Maruti alone crossed 350,000 units in September, up 35 per cent from last year, while retail sales reached 173,500 units, an increase of 27.5 per cent Yo-Y. Tata Motors moved to second place in the domestic PV sales rankings, leapfrogging both Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Hyundai.

Its September wholesales stood at 59,667 units - a 45.3 per cent jump from a year earlier. M&M was just behind with 56,233 units, up 10.1 per cent, while Hyundai slipped to fourth with 51,547 units, eking out a 0.9 per cent rise.