Domestic PV wholesales jump by 12.9% in April amid sturdy demand

Domestic passenger vehicle (PV) wholesales jumped 12.9 per cent to 331,747 units in April due to a sturdy demand, especially for sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

“It (12.9 per cent) is actually good growth. However, retail sales are a bit muted,” Shashank Srivastava, Maruti Suzuki India senior executive officer for marketing and sales, told reporters.

Auto companies release data about wholesales — the vehicles that have been supplied from the factory to dealers. Srivastava said retail sales, which constitute vehicles sold by dealers to customers, jumped by just 3.7 per cent year-on-year to 285,700 units.

The companies are filling up inventory pipelines, pushing the stock with dealers to near-normal levels, and this is a factor behind the growth in wholesales, he said. “Now, the stock with retailers is about 251,000 units, which is 22-23 days of stock, which is normal,” he noted.

“Introduction of new models such as Fronx (an SUV), albeit in the latter half of the month, is also a reason why the wholesale growth is high. However, the same growth is not there in retail,” he noted.

He said the SUV segment continues to increase its market share. In FY23, its share was about 43 per cent. However, last month its share jumped to about 47 per cent.

Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest carmaker, sold 137,320 units in April this year, seeing a growth of 12.6 per cent. Srivastava said the company’s production — especially for Brezza, Grand Vitara, and Ertiga — was slightly affected by the non-availability of semiconductor chips.

According to him, chip shortage will continue to have an impact in the first quarter of FY24, but is likely to gradually improve from the second quarter. “It is difficult to predict when the supply will return to normal,” he said. He added that higher inflation was still affecting rural demand.

Hyundai Motor domestic PV sales jumped by 13 per cent to 49,701 units.

Tarun Garg, chief operating officer (COO), Hyundai Motor India, said, “This strong growth has been backed by an overwhelming response to the recently launched Hyundai Verna that has more than doubled its volumes from its earlier version. We look to carry forward this momentum with the soon-to-be-launched SUV from the Hyundai stable, Hyundai Exter.”

The country’s third-largest PV maker, Tata Motors, sold 47,007 units in April, recording a year-on-year growth of 13.3 per cent.

Kia India’s wholesales jumped from 19,019 units in April last year to 23,216 units in the last month. “While Kia Sonet emerged as the top contributor to overall sales with 9,744 units, the Seltos and the Carens also performed well with 7,213 units and 6,107 units sold domestically, respectively,” the Korean company said in a statement.

Rohan Kanwar Gupta, vice-president & sector head — corporate ratings, ICRA, said the wholesale dispatches of PVs continued to remain at healthy levels in April 2023, aided by robust order books across OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and steady demand, even as there are concerns about the rise in the cost of ownership.

“Even as the production levels of OEMs remain at healthy levels, they continue to be impacted to some extent by a shortage of electronic components,” Gupta added.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) reported a 6.1 per cent drop in its domestic wholesale sales to 14,162 units. The company explained that it had undertaken a week-long maintenance shutdown from April 24-28 to maintain its machinery and equipment, which would help sustain operational efficiencies, productivity, and safety.

However, TKM clarified that it had posted a healthy domestic growth of 26 per cent in the first four months of 2023.