 "Car makers have a cracker of a Diwali")
New models like the Hyundai Creta, Maruti Ciaz hybrid, Honda City, Mahindra TUV3OO to name a few, led the growth even as the recently launched Renault Kwid continued to attract bookings. Buyers consider Dhanteras, the first of the five days of Diwali, an auspicious day to purchase ornaments, real estate or vehicles.
Car and sports utility vehicle (SUV) makers were offering discounts to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh (on the Honda Mobilio) alongside free accessories, zero insurance cost and lower-than-bank lending rates from their in-house finance companies. This and stabilised fuel costs, muted inflation and the general festive zest pushed demand substantially.
Mumbai-based SUV market leader Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) clocked 70 per cent increase in deliveries on Monday selling 11,500 units. Pravin Shah, president and chief executive (automotive), M&M, said, “Markets like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have really bounced back. The TUV3OO has seen a huge demand. This is a 70 per cent increase in both passenger and commercial vehicles sales compared to last year’s Dhanteras.”
Car market leader Maruti Suzuki, which expected sales on Dhanteras to be around 15,000 units, has reportedly seen an equally cheerful demand. The automated manual transmission (AMT) variants of the Celerio, Alto, Wagon R along new hybrid variants of Ciaz are witnessing the pull.
Maruti dealers reportedly clocked single-day sales of 60 units, against five to 10 units a day normally. There is a projected jump of 30 per cent in sales on Dhanteras this year, against 11,500 units clocked last year on the same day. Maruti saw 21,000 bookings for the Baleno alone.
Hyundai Motor India, the country’s second largest car maker, which saw 25 per cent increase in volumes during the Navaratri days has delivered about 12,000 units in the run up to Dhanteras.
Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice-president (sales and marketing), Hyundai Motor India, said, “There was a latent demand in the market that is fuelling sales at the moment. We expect continuation of this trend in the coming days.”
Japanese car maker Honda is not far behind. Its Indian entity clocked 4,000 units in deliveries with a substantial chunk of it being the sedan segment topper City. An official said there has been a healthy pick up in sales this year compared to last.
Jnaneswar Sen, "A total of 4,000 took the deliveries of their cars on Dhanteras day. This is a very good sign for the industry. About 70% of the cars are financed so it takes some time to go through with the paper work."