Carmakers Report Low Sales In Spite Of Year-end Discounts

by Vivaan Khatri | 09/01/2019
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Car manufacturers in India have ended the last year with a not-so-great sales report in spite of offering several discounts

The year-end discounts are always expected to push the sales figure of cars upwards. However, this year, the discount campaigns of various carmakers haven't met their expectations. December sales report shows that even giants like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, and Mahindra & Mahindra have gone through a period of lacklustre sales. The largest names in the Indian industry, Maruti Suzuki, only gets an insignificant 1% growth in the last month of 2018.

The drop in sales has been ongoing since the middle of 2018, which shows no sign of disappearing. The inclining tendency has affected the largest discount season of the year, the festive season. The whole passenger vehicles segment posted negative monthly growth from July to September 2018. The festive season with huge discounts and offer was expected to weave some magic over the stagnant industry but ended up with a slight hike of 1.55 percent growth in October. When the magic’s gone, the industry returns with a sharp drop of 3.43 percent in November.

In the last month of 2018, carmakers pick up their pieces together and pull out the year-end sales with expect to get something in returns. The year-end discount is one opportunity for carmakers to clear up their stocks of the old models and prepare for the upcoming new years with new cars and updates. However, it turns out to be not so exciting.

We have summed up the December sales performance of India’s leading car manufacturers in the table below:

Company   Sales Volume  Growth
 Maruti Suzuki India  1,19,804 units  1%
 Hyundai Motor India   42,093 units  4.8%
 Mahindra & Mahindra   15,901 units  3%
 Tata Motors  14,260 units  1%
 Honda Cars India  13,139 units  4%
 Toyota Kirloskar Motor  11,830 units 9.6%

Maruti Suzuki: One of the brightest note on Maruti’s year-end month comes from the Ciaz that record an impressive growth of 98.7 percent. But Maruti’s entry-level models, WagonR and Alto combined, declined by 14 percent, possibly due to the downsized production of the best-selling WagonR which is going to its life end this month. The Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis and Swift gets a less severe drop of 3.8 percent.

Maruti Suzuki Swift showroom

Maruti Suzuki only bears a marginal growth of 1 percent during the year-end discount season

Hyundai Motor shows a positive result with a 4.8 percent growth thanks to the well-doing performance of the Elite i20, Grand i10, Verna and the Creta. On the top of that, Hyundai has scored a hit with the new Santro which has effectively improve the overall sales performance of the South Korean carmaker.

Mahindra & Mahindra has two memorable launches recently with the flagship Alturas G4 and Marazzo. It has helped the manufacturers to get a 3% growth last month compared with last year’s same month.

Tata Motors has slowed down a bit in the last month of 2019. Despite the ongoing upward growing trend during the year, it has a flat growth of 1 percent last month.

Honda Cars India has reported posting a growth of 4 percent. The main factor to drive the sales up is the high demand on the Amaze and CR-V.

Toyota Kirloskar Motors year end sales

Toyota Kirloskar Motors is doing good with an impressive 9.6 percent growth

Toyota Kirloskar Motors surpasses all others with the impressive growth of 9.6 percent.

“We are happy to close the year end with a series of positive milestones despite the dampening effect on consumer sentiment owing to hike in fuel prices, higher interest rates, increase in insurance premium, said N Raja, deputy managing director of Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

He also added: "We have been able to record the highest ever IMV sales (Innova and Fortuner) this year. The buying sentiment had seen a slowdown in the last few months owing to adverse effects of macroeconomic factors, yet the industry hit back with steady growth in sales. The Toyota Yaris sedan launched this year has been an important contributor to the positive annual sales growth. Additionally, other products like Etios Liva have also sustained the positive sales momentum."

Looking up to the future, the first month of 2019 is the due time for many new car models, including Tata Harrier, Nissan Licks, new Maruti WagonR and Mahindra XUV300. It is expected to pull up a smile on the car manufacturer’s faces.

Be updated on the latest car news in India by visiting our website - IndianAuto.com

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