Toyota's first standalone electric SUV, the Urban Cruiser Ebella, delivers strong range and performance with premium quality, but rear space and features could have been better, says Somnath Chatterjee.
The January-March quarter (Q4) results for 2024-25 (FY25) from the country's largest passenger vehicle (PV) maker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), were a mixed bag, with revenues broadly in line but operating profit missing Street expectations. Given cost pressures, margins at the operating level were the lowest in the past seven quarters.
'If the targets become unscientific and unjust, Then, just to meet CAFE-III regulation, a small car -- which produces a very low absolute carbon dioxide -- will have to be discontinued.'
Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said it will hike prices by up to Rs 32,500 across various models from February 1 to partially offset the rise in input costs. Due to rising input costs and operational expenses, the company plans to increase car prices, starting February 1, 2025, Maruti Suzuki India said in a regulatory filing.
With demand continuing to be strong post the festive season, leading automakers, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, saw robust growth in sales in November as compared to the same month last year. Maruti Suzuki India reported the best-ever total sales, including exports, last month at 229,021 units, a year-on-year growth of 26 per cent as compared to November last year.
Indian automakers are reviving legacy nameplates to leverage brand recall and stand out in a crowded market, as classic badges like Sierra, Safari, Baleno and Scorpio return to attract buyers.
Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday reported a 47 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 3,650 crore for the April-June quarter on account of cost reduction efforts, favourable commodity prices and foreign exchange gains. The auto major had posted a net profit of Rs 2,485 crore in the April-June quarter of last fiscal.
Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) recorded the sharpest acceleration among large players, with EV retail jumping to 33,513 units from 7,139 units, an almost 5-fold jump, aided by strong demand for new launches.
In October, small car wholesales of the auto industry -- excluding Tata Motors -- went up by 8.4 per cent Y-o-Y to 116,601 units, the data showed. However, the utility vehicle (UV) segment which includes sports utility vehicles (SUVs) as well as multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs), saw a bigger growth in October.
Mexico on Thursday imposed a tariff of up to 50 per cent on imports from its non-preferential trade partners, including India, a move that might hit New Delhi's annual $5.75 billion shipments to its third-largest car export market.
'The market is still very bullish. The demand is so strong that for eight models, we have no units in our factories to dispatch to dealers,' said Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer, marketing & sales, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL).
The automobile and auto-ancillary sector is expected to show strong Q3FY26 results, aided by festival-led demand, rationalisation in goods and services tax (GST) rates for select categories of vehicles, easing interest rates, and improving rural sentiment.
A deep split has emerged within India's auto industry over the proposed CAFE exemption for small cars, with only Maruti Suzuki and Renault backing the move in the final SIAM vote.
Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday reported an 18 per cent year-on-year dip in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,102 crore for the second quarter ended September hit by the withdrawal of indexation benefit and change in the tax rate on long term capital gains on debt mutual funds. The country's largest carmaker had posted a net profit of Rs 3,786 crore in the July-September quarter of last fiscal.
Starting January, the market is expected to welcome models like the Tata Punch 2025 which is expected to be around 6 lakh, Mahindra BE 07 EV around 29 lakh, Maruti WagonR Electric around 8.5 lakh, Toyota 3-Row SUV around 14 lakh, and Volkswagen Tera to be around 8 lakh.
Maruti Suzuki, India's largest producer of small cars, stands to benefit the most.
Maruti takes a leap in terms of technology with features like ADAS, a 360-degree camera, ventilated seats, a powered tailgate, audio system with Dolby Atmos and much more.
Passenger vehicle dispatches from companies to dealers increased 19 per cent year-on-year in November as demand remained robust post festive period, industry body SIAM said on Friday.
Network scale seen as central to tapping smaller markets.
Leading carmakers Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai on Thursday reported a dip in wholesales in July as companies reduced vehicle dispatches to dealers amid moderation in demand. Maruti Suzuki India said its total domestic passenger vehicle sales stood at 137,463 units in July against 152,126 units in the year-ago month, down 9.64 per cent.
In absolute terms, both types of cars must cut emissions by about 28-29 g/km. But in percentage terms, the lighter 900-kg car must reduce emissions by 27 per cent, while the 1,500-kg car needs a 22 per cent cut. And the target becomes progressively stringent for both -- but, once again, the tightening is sharper for the 900-kg car than for the 1500-kg car.
All three Bharti group companies outperformed in CY25 but the biggest gain came from Bharti Airtel, the flagship.
Passenger vehicle sales in India kicked off on a flat note in new fiscal 2024-25 with 3.38 lakh units sold in April, impacted by high base effect and muted demand due to the ongoing general elections. Dispatches of passenger vehicles from manufacturers to dealers were at 338,341 units in April 2024 as compared to 332,468 units in the same month last year, a growth of 1.77 per cent with major players Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai and Tata Motors reporting marginal growth in their domestic wholesales.
Top carmakers led by Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Kia India on Saturday reported record sales in the domestic market riding on festive demand boosted by GST rate cut. Other manufacturers such as Skoda Auto India and Toyota Kirloskar Motor also posted impressive growth in sales in October.
The new Seltos has grown in size with a length of 4460mm and that's 95mm longer!
Maruti Suzuki's e-Vitara marks its high-stakes EV debut with strong export ambitions, lifting its stock even as analysts caution over pricing and fierce competition.
Maruti Suzuki India on Friday said it is recalling 7,213 units of its Baleno RS model due to a suspected defect in vacuum pump, which assists brake function. The recall will impact vehicles manufactured between October 27, 2016 and November 1, 2019, Maruti Suzuki India said in a regulatory filing. "It is suspected that there is a possible defect in vacuum pump, which assists the brake function.
Police have cordoned off areas within a 200-metre radius of the red Ford EcoSport car allegedly linked to suspects behind the deadly blast in Delhi, a day after it was seized from Haryana's Faridabad district, police sources said on Thursday.
After a record-breaking year, India's automobile industry is entering 2026 on a relatively strong footing, with sales growth expected in the 6-8 per cent range. The outlook is underpinned by policy support, including GST rationalisation, easing monetary conditions, and income tax relief, which together are likely to improve affordability and sustain consumer demand across vehicle segments.
Maruti Suzuki India's production in December 2022 was lower by 17.96 per cent at 124,722 units, according to a regulatory filing by the company. The company had a total production of 152,029 units in the same month a year ago. Production in mini cars and compact segment, comprising models such as Alto, S-Presso, Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift and WagonR, was lower at 83,753 units last month as compared to 106,090 units in December 2021.
According to Siam data, Indian auto companies sold 982,456 units of utility vehicles in the first half of FY23, a 50.29 per cent growth over the corresponding period last year.
EV manufacturers point out that converting a regular petrol car into a flex-fuel vehicle requires only about Rs 17,000-25,000 per unit, whereas developing an EV demands vastly greater investments in research, battery development, and localisation.
Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corporation will invest Rs 70,000 crore in the next five to six years in India to strengthen its operations in the country, its representative director and president Toshihiro Suzuki said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday kicked off exports of Maruti Suzuki India's first electric vehicle e VITARA to 100 countries and also inaugurated the production of lithium-ion battery cells for strong hybrid electric vehicles at its facility in Gujarat.
A day before US President Donald Trump's additional 25 per cent tariff kicks in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday made a vehement pitch for swadeshi and Make in India that should help create jobs in the country.
From the Sensex pack, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, PowerGrid, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Maruti Suzuki India, Axis Bank, UltraTech Cement and HCL Technologies were the only gainers. On the other hand, Eternal, Tata Motors' commercial vehicles arm, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Trent, Tata Consultancy Services, Hindustan Unilever, and Infosys were among the laggards.
'In the January-August period, the share of hatchback in the overall PV industry sales was about 22.4 per cent. In the September-October period, the share of hatchbacks has come down to 20.4 per cent. In just October, their share was just 20 per cent. This is simple wholesale data from industry body SIAM.'
Since the Indian government reduced GST on small cars on September 22, the small car segment's share in Maruti's overall sales has risen to more than 25 per cent, up from 16.6 per cent earlier in FY26.
Maruti Suzuki India's net profit surged 80.3 per cent to Rs 3,716.5 crore in the September quarter, driven by better sales, softening commodity prices, cost reduction efforts and higher non-operating income. The company had delivered a net profit of Rs 2,061.5 crore in the year-ago period, Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement on Friday. Maruti said it is expecting the affordability of small cars in the domestic market to come back in the next 2-3 years in the face of rising income levels of people and a growing economy, among others.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India expects auto sales to bounce back to the glory days of 7 per cent growth by FY 27, helped by the proposed GST rate cut which is expected to bring down car prices by 3.5 to 8.5 per cent.
In terms of safety, the Victoris has scored 5 stars in both GNCAP and BNCAP tests and that's a first for Maruti, observes Somnath Chatterjee.
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