Auto sales in fast lane on easing chip shortage blues, festive demand

NEW DELHI: Automakers Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Kia reported robust growth in their vehicle dispatches in the domestic market for August buoyed by festive demand and easing of semi-conductor shortage woes.

Other manufacturers like Hyundai, Toyota and Skoda also reported growth in wholesales in August as compared with the same month last year.

The country’s largest automaker Maruti Suzuki India said its domestic passenger vehicle dispatches increased by 30 per cent to 1,34,166 units in August as compared with 1,03,187 units in the year-ago month.

On August numbers, MSI Senior Executive Director (Sales and Marketing) Shashank Srivastava said coming on top of July’s record numbers of 3.42 lakh units and two consecutive quarters of 9 lakh plus units for the industry, it appears that demand continues to be strong and there is a recovery as far as production is concerned.

“In the last three months, the figure is 9.92 lakh units which is the highest number so far seen in the industry. So, it appears that the demand continues to be strong and the supply is also improving,” he stated.

He, however, cautioned about the build-up of some inventory in the marketplace on account of retail sales being on the lower side than the dispatches to dealerships.

Srivastava stated that going into the festive period, Maruti Suzuki was sitting on an order backlog of 3.77 lakh units.

“If we look at the entire industry, the pending orders should be in the range of 7-7.5 lakh units. Now how the production gets ramped up would determine how well the industry performs,” he said.

Hyundai Motor India reported a 6 pc surge in its domestic wholesales at 49,510 units against 46,866 units in August 2021. Tata Motors saw its passenger vehicle wholesales in the domestic market increasing by 68 pc to 47,166 units last month, as against 28,018 units in August 2021.

M&M reported an 87 per cent year-on-year jump in domestic passenger vehicles sales at 29,852 units in August.

M&M president, Automotive Division Veejay Nakra said the demand across its portfolio remained strong and new launches such as Scorpio-N and new Bolero MaXX Pik-up also helped drive growth.