- Maruti’s total domestic vehicle wholesales stood at 124,375 units in December 2019 as against 121,479 units reported in the year-ago period
- Maruti’s mid-size sedan Ciaz’s volumes continued to drop in December too
India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) has reported a growth of 2.4% year-on-year (YoY) on total domestic vehicle wholesales, which are total factory dispatches to the dealerships.
The company’s total domestic vehicle wholesales stood at 124,375 units in December 2019 as against 121,479 units reported in the year-ago period. Besides passenger vehicles, Maruti’s total domestic wholesales also include light commercial vehicle (LCV) volumes, which reported a YoY drop of 5% at 1,591 units last month.
Total domestic passenger vehicle (PV) wholesales stood at 122,784 units in December 2019, up 2.5% YoY. The PV wholesales were clearly driven by the low base effect of December 2018 and the aggressive year-end discounts offered across all models.
The discounts in the last month of CY2019 remained steepest when compared to the December months from the past few years, suggest several dealer principals.
The compact and utility vehicle segments drove Maruti’s YoY growth in December 2019 wholesales. While the compact segment reported sales of 65,673 units, up 28%, UVs recorded a growth of 17.7% YoY at 23,808 units.
Maruti’s compact car portfolio includes models such as the popular hatchbacks Swift, Baleno, Celerio, new Wagon R and also the compact sedan Dzire. It sells Ertiga, XL6, Vitara Brezza and S-Cross in its utility vehicle portfolio.
Meanwhile, the carmaker’s entry-level or mini category has reported wholesales of 23,883 units in December 2019, down 13.6% YoY. The newly launched S-Presso is positioned in this sub-segment.
For April – December 2019 period, the company has seen the sharpest decline in its mini category, which reported cumulative volumes of 178,404 units as against 304,053 units for the 9-month period in 2018. To push sales on this front, the carmaker has recently rolled out an updated variant of its small car Alto (VXI+), which now gets touchscreen infotainment system besides some cosmetic updates.
Maruti’s mid-size sedan Ciaz’s volumes continued to drop in December too. It stood at 1,786 units, down 62% YoY. In its van category, where it sells Eeco, total wholesales stood at 7,634 units, down 52% YoY.
Maruti has supplied 1,360 units of its Baleno premium hatchback to its partner Toyota, which retails the same model christened as Glanza. The company has supplied total of 17,950 units of Baleno cars to Toyota during the three-quarters ending 31 December 2019. Taking these numbers in account, MSIL’s total domestic wholesales stand at 125,735 units, up 3.5% YoY.
The company has reported YoY growth of 10% in export, which stood at 7,561 units in December 2019. The company’s inventory is estimated to be less than 30-35 days currently as it gears up to roll out the BS VI compliant variants of the remaining models.
