The festive cheer continues in Motown, carrying forward the sales momentum of the last six months. Automakers drove in with impressive numbers even in the month of October with customer sentiment at its best.
Maruti Suzuki's sales grew by 33 per cent, buoyed by increased demand for the Ritz and Swift Dzire, while Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) saw a 23 per cent increase in sales led by strong demand for its UVs Xylo and Bolero.
Vivek Nayar, VP of marketing at M&M, said, "Well we have had yet another excellent month in October. Our domestic business has grown 23.3 per cent to deliver 24,534 numbers, Xylo is going great guns."
Meanwhile, two wheeler sales too showed robust growth. Hero Honda's sales were hampered by a high base and grew just 0.5 per cent. It was the company's tenth straight month of selling over 3 lakh two-wheelers in a month.
Even Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Company joined the party growing 51 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
But in the case of most vehicle manufacturers, these numbers need to be viewed in the context of the low base effect of last year. There was a modest sequential growth as well and things could be better in the coming months.
Mayank Pareek, executive officer of marketing and sales at Maruti Suzuki India, said, "I think November, in terms of growth percentage, will look very big because last year November was really bad. So, you will see really a good percentage growth. However, one main reason for this growth has been government’s stimulus, which came in December last year."
Currently the fundamentals for growth are really strong. New launches are creating new demand and finance is readily available to support these purchases and exports are recovering.
However, with festive season almost over, any move to harden interest rate or even withdrawal of stimulus packages could prove detrimental to the sector.