Car sales hit record high in October on GST 2.0 boost, festive demand

The auto industry witnessed robust car sales in October 2025.

The passenger vehicle (PV) industry in India reached a record high in terms of volumes in October 2025, fuelled by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate rationalisation and robust festive demand, as several carmakers recorded their highest-ever monthly wholesales.

The PV wholesales in the domestic market jumped 17.23% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 4,70,227 units in October 2025 from 4,01,105 units in October 2024, according to industry data. This was the best-ever domestic monthly volumes, beating the previous record of 4,05,522 units in January 2025.

While cars across segments have become more affordable following the GST restructuring, festivals like Dussehra, Dhanteras and Diwali boosted the demand further last month.

Among the top carmakers, Maruti Suzuki India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Toyota Kirloskar Motor registered record domestic volumes in October 2025. However, Hyundai Motor India witnessed a decline.

PV Wholesales - October 2025 vs October 2024

The country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, clocked PV wholesales of 1,76,318 units in October 2025, logging a growth of 10.48% y-o-y over 1,59,591 units sold in the year-ago month.

Maruti's Senior Executive Officer for Marketing and Sales, Partho Banerjee, said that Maruti retails sales rose almost 20% y-o-y to 2,42,096 units in October 2025. "We expect our Vahan market share to be around 43.5%," he added.

In terms of model-wise retails for Maruti cars, the Fronx did 28,327 units, the Dzire 28,000 units, the Swift 24,348 units, the Ertiga 23,429 units, the WagonR 24,193 units, the Baleno 23,000 units and the Eeco 18,207 units. Despite some production constraints, the Brezza retailed around 17,847 units.

The carmaker has a network stock of just 1,04,000 vehicles with the teams at Maruti working even on Sundays to enhance the production and replenish the network stock.

Replying to a question from Moneycontrol during the company's monthly sales briefing, Banerjee said: "Our network stock is just at 19 days now. We, as a manufacturer, have drastically reduced the network stock. Earlier, we maintained a very healthy network stock. As Maruti, we do not see any problem. Our effort is now to see to it that we are able to serve the customers quickly, as the waiting orders are there for almost all the models. So that is the only thing now which we have to take care of till about December 2025."

Mahindra's SUV volumes grew 31.41% y-o-y at 71,624 units in October 2025 from 54,504 units in the same month last year. Mahindra's Automotive Division CEO, Nalinikanth Gollagunta, said that the Scorpio-maker clocked its highest-ever SUV wholesales during the month. Last month, the company launched the updated versions of the Thar, Bolero and Bolero Neo.

The PV wholesales of Tata increased 27.02% y-o-y at 61,134 units in October 2025 from 48,131 units in October 2024. While the SUVs led the charge with volumes of over 47,000 units, the electric vehicle (EV) segment peaked at 9,286 units.

According to Tata, the Nexon's volume rose 50% y-o-y, while the Harrier and the Safari cumulatively sold over 7,000 units, driven by a strong momentum for the Adventure X variants and the new Harrier.ev.

Although Hyundai's wholesales dropped 3.2% y-o-y at 53,792 units during the month under consideration from 55,568 units in the year-ago month, the launch of the new Venue on November 4, coupled with the growing popularity of the Creta, is expected to drive demand.

"October 2025 was a month driven by the festivals of Dussehra, Dhanteras and Diwali, further complemented by the positive impact of GST 2.0 reforms. This provided a significant boost to the Indian automotive industry," Hyundai's Whole-Time Director and Chief Operating Officer, Tarun Garg, said.

"At Hyundai Motor India, we witnessed robust market demand and high consumer enthusiasm leading to second-highest monthly sales of our formidable SUV duo -- the Creta and the Venue combined, with 30,119 units sold. We expect to accelerate this momentum with the upcoming launch of the all-new Hyundai Venue, which is already open for bookings," Garg added.

Toyota continued its sturdy run as the volumes climbed 43.07% y-o-y at 40,257 units in October 2025 from 28,138 units in the same month last year.

The company's Sales, Service and Used Car Business Vice President, Varinder Wadhwa, said that the favourable economic environment during the festive season, reinforced by the government's forward-looking GST reforms, boosted market confidence. "At Toyota, this has resulted in a significant rise in customer enquiries and order intakes, collectively driving our overall performance," he added.

"The recently introduced Urban Cruiser Hyryder Aero Edition and 2025 Fortuner Leader Edition have received tremendous appreciation for their unique styling and premium value proposition," Wadhwa noted.