The retail sales of passenger vehicle in December breached the 4,00,000 mark for the first time, breaking all previous records of sales in a single month, according to Executive Director Shashank Srivastava of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
The number is expected to be around 4,11,000 units in December, comfortably higher than the previous sales record of 3,82,000 in December 2019, Srivastava told BQ Prime.
"Maruti Suzuki touched about 2,06,000 retails, which is only the third time in its history that the company has crossed the 2,00,000 market," he said. "The last two occasions were December 2018 and December 2019."
Retail sales are expected to go up by 28% in December compared to the same month a year earlier.
But the country's largest carmaker sent 9% fewer cars to dealerships in December compared to the same month last year. This was because dealerships were clearing out their stock and there was a shortage of semiconductors.
The sales of small and compact cars declined by 21.5%, which is a lot because issues with affordability persisted.
"At the moment, the demand is muted (for small cars), and the sales have come down as a percentage of total sales," Srivastava said. "As the economy improves and the income levels of the buyers in this category rise, the demand will be strong once again."
The company continues to have a large orderbook of 363,000 units as a chip shortage has limited the automaker's ability to make vehicles that are in high demand.
Maruti Suzuki has projected FY24 industry sales at 41 lakh units, with an estimated growth of 7–7.5%.
Srivastava said the company is closely monitoring the situation around the resurgence of Covid globally, and while it's hard to predict any impact in the future, there has been no impact so far on the supply chains.
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