Car sales rebound in festive October, but with exceptions

Most top carmakers saw their sales rebound in the festive month of October after a dip in September, they reported on Friday, except for Tata Motors and Honda Cars India which saw a decline.

Some such as Maruti Suzuki India even reported their highest-ever retail sales with a 4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth, while Mahindra & Mahindra reported their highest monthly sales in October for the current fiscal.

Hyundai Motor India saw a 2 per cent YoY rise, while Toyota Kirloskar Motor saw a 41 per cent jump YoY. JSW MG Motor India reported a 31 per cent YoY climb in wholesales.

These numbers come even as carmakers are struggling to offload the inventory pile up at the dealer end, with car sales remaining sluggish (particularly in the small-car segment) in the preceding three months.

Tata Motors’ hope for record festive sales was dashed by a marginal decline in both its domestic and international sales in the same period. Its sales dropped to 82,682 units this October from 82,954 units in October 2023.

Honda Cars India also saw a 23 per cent YoY decline in its total sales, dropping from 13,083 units dispatched to dealers in October 2023 to 10,080 units in October this year. While its domestic sales dipped by 41 per cent, total sales saw a smaller decline as exports rose from 3,683 to 4,534 units.

Despite this, Honda Cars India Vice President (Marketing and Sales) Kunal Behl observed that the festive sales momentum revitalised demand compared to the previous few months of muted activity for the industry.

Similarly, even though market leader Maruti reported over 2 lakh units sold including exports, its domestic passenger vehicle wholesales dropped 5 per cent YoY to 1.59 lakh units this October, hampered by a 20 per cent drop in small car sales.

The SUV surge

On the other hand, top SUV-maker Mahindra & Mahindra dispatched 54,504 utility vehicles in the domestic market, a growth of 25 per cent from October 2023 reaching its highest-ever SUV sales, supported by new launches. The company also saw its highest-ever total volume, a growth of 20 per cent. Mahindra & Mahindra has been seeing increasing dispatches every month this fiscal so far.

Many carmakers reported a similar surge in their SUV sales.

Hyundai Motor saw their highest-ever monthly SUV sales at 37,902 units. SUVs represented 68 per cent of the company’s total monthly sales in October 2024 with similar penetration in urban and rural markets.

For Maruti, while its mini-segment car and compact car sales dropped, their SUV sales saw a 19.4 per cent rise.

Domestic sales for Tata Motors stayed flat even though it derives two-thirds of its sales volumes from SUVs as it was hit by competition from Mahindra.

(With inputs from agencies)