Auto sales inching back to peak-period figures; easing of supply-chain bottlenecks aids growth

May sales not comparable with a year earlier, when the operations of the company ‘were significantly affected due to COVID-19 related disruptions’: Maruti

Most automobile makers reported healthy growth in dispatches to the dealers in May, albeit on a low volume base of May 2021 when the country was dealing with the second wave of the pandemic.

Market leader Maruti Suzuki sold 124,474 passenger vehicles (PVs) in the domestic market last month. In the year-ago period the company had sold 32,903 units. The company said that the sales figures of May 2022 are not comparable with that seen a year earlier, when the operations of the company ‘were significantly affected due to COVID-19 related disruptions’.

“The shortage of electronic components had a minor impact on the production of vehicles, mainly on domestic models. The company took all possible measures to minimise the impact,” it added.

“If you look at 2018-19, which was a peak sales year… April and May sales were about 5,99,000 units [for the industry] and April-May this year is 5,88,000 units…so overall numbers look pretty good. If you look at pre-COVID 2019-20, which was not a good year for the industry, passenger vehicle sales were about 4,86,000 units for April-May,” Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India, told The Hindu.

He added that Maruti had about 295,000 bookings pending, and the number for the industry was about 550,000 bookings. “Booking and enquiries seem pretty ok… but we have to see how inflation and interest rate pan out, moving forward,” Mr. Srivastava added.

Hyundai Motor India, which on Wednesday unveiled the new Venue, said its wholesales grew 69% to 42,293 units. “Both HMI plants in Chennai observed the scheduled biannual maintenance shutdown leading to no production for 6 days in the month (16th May to 21st May). This reduced the vehicle availability in the month affecting May sales numbers,” the company said.

For Tata Motors, total PV sales in the domestic market stood at 43,341 units, as against 15,181 in May 2021. Meanwhile, Mahindra and Mahindra said its passenger vehicle sales were up at 26,904 units. Veejay Nakra, president, Automotive Division, M&M Ltd., “With sales of 26632 SUVs in May, we continued the growth momentum with all our brands performing well including XUV700 and Thar. We are witnessing strong bookings and have a robust pipeline.”