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While the share of diesel vehicles sales in the overall passenger car industry has already fallen sharply, sales of CNG vehicles have shown a compound annual growth rate of 15.5 per cent over the past five years.
Passenger vehicle wholesale in India increased by 14.19 per cent to 3,10,294 units in October against 2,71,737 units in the same month last year as companies despatched more units to dealers to cater to enhanced demand in the festive season, auto industry body SIAM said on Wednesday. According to the latest data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), two-wheeler sales also rose 16.88 per cent to 20,53,814 units, compared with 17,57,180 units in the same month last year. Motorcycle sales were at 13,82,749 units as against 11,16,886 units in October 2019, up 23.8 per cent.
Two-wheeler sales were down 15.24 per cent in July to 12,81,354 units as compared with 15,11,717 units in the same month last year.
Maruti, Hyundai and General Motors posted negative results whereas Honda car sales zoomed in November.
While Hyundai Motor India reported a marginal growth, Toyota Kirloskar Motor witnessed a dip in sales last month.
Major automobile manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Toyota Kirloskar on Tuesday reported decline in domestic passenger vehicle sales in May compared to the previous month as a spike in COVID-19 cases and lockdowns across various states hit production and dispatches. The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), which shut production from May 1 to May 16 so as to divert oxygen from industrial use for medical purposes, reported domestic dispatches to dealers at 35,293 units last month, down 75 per cent from 142,454 units in April. The company said sales of its mini cars, comprising Alto and S-Presso, declined by 81 per cent to 4,760 units in May as against 25,041 units in April this year.
While the latest, fourth-generation Swift makes no pretence of being a performance car or the last word in luxury, what it does stand for is amply evident, notes Pavan Lall.
Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday launched a limited edition version of its popular model WagonR, named Avance, with prices starting at Rs 430,000.
Major automakers, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kia, Toyota and Honda, on Thursday reported healthy growth in passenger vehicles sales in June, recovering from the disruptions induced by the second wave of COVID-19. The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) posted total sales of 1,47,368 units in June, up from 46,555 units in May. Its domestic dispatches to dealers last month stood at 130,348 units, up from 35,293 units in May, as easing of COVID-related restrictions helped the auto major to dispatch more units to dealerships.
Demand for models such as Ertiga, DZire and Swift were robust in the quarter despite slowdown in auto industry.
The growth in the PV segment was primarily led by car market leader, Maruti Suzuki India, which saw its dispatches to dealers grow 4.4 per cent YoY to 144,277 units after 10 months of drop. It was driven by new launches, such as the S-Presso, a mini sport UV.
Maruti, M&M report weak sales, Hyundai up marginally.
Currency fluctuation has been affecting margins.
The company has been gradually ramping up production at the plant, which had been locked out for a month following the July 18 violence in which one senior official was killed.
For the entire 2012-13 financial year, however, the company's total sales increased by 3.33 per cent to 11,71,434 units from 11,33,695 units in 2011-12, Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement.
The country's largest car-maker has also issued termination notices to 500 regular workers.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said it will increase the prices of its vehicles across all models by up to Rs 20,000 from January due to increasing pressure on its margins due to currency fluctuation. Honda Cars India and Volkswagen India said they, too, are contemplating the same.
The crippling strike at the country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant entered its 13th day on Thursday, with production completely shut down.
The quarter was marked by adverse foreign exchange rates and commodity prices, higher depreciation and higher sales promotion expenses.
LIC sold a total of 58,29,103 shares of the company aggregating 2.018 per cent stake between August 24, 2009 and November 11, 2012 through the open market, Maruti Suzuki India said in a filing to Bombay Stock Exchange.
Maruti Suzuki India may have taken pride in its 'Gypsy' model with defence forces as its main customers but Mahindra & Mahindra Vice-Chairman and MD Anand Mahindra has likened it to a rabbit compared to the company's cheetah-inspired 'XUV500'.
The average discounts on the models, especially petrol, were all-time high during the July-September quarter.
Buoyed by good response to its new Alto 800, which has touched 21,200 bookings within a week of launch, Maruti Suzuki India is looking to cash in on the ongoing festive season sales.
Maruti Suzuki India will set up a skill development centre in Gujarat, where it is investing Rs 4,000 crore to set up a manufacturing facility, even as it is trying to restore normalcy at its Manesar plant in Haryana.
The union is organising a protest rally this afternoon at Gurgaon against the sacking, apart from making other demands.
The company had recently stopped production of petrol models, including the Alto, M800, A-Star, Estilo and Omni for three days to prevent inventories piling up further.
Net sales during the period under review stood at Rs 10,956.95 crore (Rs 109.56 billion), up 45.57 per cent from Rs 7,527.10 crore (Rs 75.27 billion) in the year-ago period, Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement.
The growth momentum that started during the festival season is likely to sustain in the new year, reports Arindam Majumder.
'While most companies were bullish before the second wave of double-digit sales growth in FY22, that may not be the case now.'
Developed in-house, the 1.5-litre engine comes mated with six-speed transmission and offers improved performance.
Maruti Suzuki India said on Wednesday it has run out of stock of the two best selling models, Swift and DZire, which are produced at the Manesar plant where it has declared lockout following violence last week.
In a filing to the BSE, Maruti Suzuki India said HSBC Global Investments Fund Mauritius Ltd had sold 1,99,198 shares in the open market on June 29.
Maruti Suzuki India had rolled out its first car -- an M800 -- in December 1983 and attained five million domestic sales in February 2006.
After the hit of the pandemic, India Inc is now worried about the adverse impact of inflation and higher commodity prices on their revenues and margins. The inflation scare is the strongest among manufacturers of consumer goods such as automobiles, consumer durables, and fast-moving capital goods (FMCG). Companies across sectors fear they will not be able to pass on the hike in input costs to their consumers due to weak demand, which, in turn, would lead to a hit on margins and profitability in the forthcoming quarters.
As the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic abates, India's automakers are hopeful of a quick recovery in sales volumes, led by better rural sentiment, low interest rates, improved availability of finance and a gradual uptick in business and economic activity. In fact, companies have started to ramp up production already, encouraged by high order books and the growing preference for private transport in both rural and urban areas as a means to avoid infections. In early April, the industry had been bullish as the sales trend for March showed that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic had been left behind. The total vehicle sales had grown by 77 per cent, albeit on a lower base, and for the past few months, sales had consistently touched 300,000 units per month.
Durable goods companies and retailers say online sales won't compensate for the fall in offline sales.
According to a memorandum of understanding signed between the two organisations, Maruti Suzuki India will sponsor executives every year for the part-time post-graduate diploma in management programme at IMI, the car-maker said.
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