GST 2.0, pent-up demand, festive fervour fuel car sales in September

"We have done customer deliveries of 1,65,000 units in the first eight days of Navaratri. There are still two days to go. The enquiries that we have received in the first eight days of Navaratri are 7,00,530 and bookings are 1,50,000. The number of bookings per day has now gone up from 18,000 earlier. This is an all-time high, beating the previous best Navaratri figures of FY20," he noted. Last year, Maruti retailed 85,000 units during Navaratri.

While the carmaker garnered over 3,50,000 bookings in September 2025, it still has 2,50,000 pending bookings. So far as Navaratri bookings are concerned, Maruti is already at 1,50,868 this year, as against 1,00,850 bookings of last year.

"Navaratri retails are still going on, and we are expecting to touch 2,00,000 units. We are expecting good retail on Navami and Vijayadashami (Dussehra) as people like taking deliveries on these two days as well," Banerjee said.

Banerjee said that many customers held back their decision to buy a car in August 2025. "Although we are seeing a growth of almost 100%, this is also due to the pent-up demand. However, it will come down in the subsequent months," he added. The company currently has a month of stock at the dealership level.

Tata Motors' PV wholesales rose 45.31% y-o-y at 59,667 units in September 2025. This was the company's highest-ever monthly sales performance, propelled by SUV models like the Punch, Nexon, Harrier and Safari.

At more than 22,500 units, the popular Nexon recorded the highest-ever monthly sales for any Tata PV. Even the Harrier and the Safari clocked their highest-ever monthly sales. In the CNG department, Tata witnessed another superb show with sales of 17,800 units, again a record figure.

"The PV industry marked a sharp upswing in demand during September 2025, following the rollout of GST 2.0, further buoyed by festive tailwinds. This surge in demand sets a promising tone for sustained growth in the months ahead," said Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles.

"Across our portfolio, customer interest remained exceptionally strong with new bookings doubling in the latter half of September 2025 following the lowering of GST rates," Chandra added.

Buoyed by the Scorpio-led strong SUV portfolio, Mahindra & Mahindra's PV wholesales jumped 10.13% y-o-y at 56,233 units in September 2025. The company's Automotive Division CEO, Nalinikanth Gollagunta, said that due to the impetus from GST 2.0 and the preceding weeks' pent-up demand, we have seen robust growth in dealer-reported customer retails during the first nine days of Navaratri, with over 60% growth in the SUV segment, compared to the first nine days of Navaratri last year.

"The surge in festive demand has placed significant constraints on the availability of trailers. We are working to improve dispatches to our dealer network within the constraints," Gollagunta observed.

The PV wholesales of Hyundai grew 0.87% y-o-y at 51,547 units in September 2025. Two SUVs drove the volumes -- Creta and Venue. While the Creta recorded its highest-ever monthly sales at 18,861 units, the Venue garnered its highest monthly sales in the last 20 months at 11,484 units.

Hyundai's Whole-Time Director and Chief Operating Officer, Tarun Garg, said that post announcement of GST 2.0 reforms, the company is witnessing a synergetic alignment of both domestic and export markets now growing in tandem.

"Our domestic sales in September 2025 stood at 51,547 units, driven by vibrant festive demand and strong customer interest across all segments. We have also witnessed the highest-ever domestic SUV sales penetration in the history of the company at 72.39%, with Creta scoring the highest-ever monthly sales at 18,861 units. The Venue too reported a 20-month high sales volume of 11,484 units in September 2025," Garg noted.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor continued its strong run with PV wholesales rising 13.81% y-o-y at 27,089 units in September 2025. The company's Sales-Service-Used Car Business Vice President Varinder Wadhwa pointed out that the market sentiments have been upbeat owing to the landmark GST reforms and the onset of the festive season.

"At Toyota, we have passed on the full benefits of GST to our customers, which has further boosted demand across our portfolio. With the festive season gathering momentum, we are confident of a strong performance ahead," Wadhwa said, adding that our foremost priority is to ensure timely deliveries of the cars right now.

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Under the new GST structure, the relatively smaller (sub-4 metre) cars are in the 18% slab, while the compensation cess on automobiles has been completely removed. They earlier attracted a GST of 28% and a compensation cess of 1% to 3%, resulting in a total tax incidence of 29% to 31%.

The bigger models, as well as the luxury cars, have been placed in the 40% slab now. In the GST 1.0 regime, the overall tax on them was from 43% to 50% (28% GST + 15% to 22% compensation cess).

Lower tax under GST 2.0 has resulted in a price reduction of up to Rs 1,29,600 on Maruti cars, Rs 1,55,000 on Tata cars, Rs 1,56,000 on Mahindra cars, Rs 2,40,000 on Hyundai cars and Rs 3,49,000 on Toyota cars. The companies have also extended additional festive benefits to enhance sales.

However, there is no change in GST on electric models in the new structure. They were and are still in the 5% slab.