The domestic car market yet again posted a disappointing set of numbers as poor buyer sentiments continued to affect retail car demand. Almost every carmaker reported a drop in wholesale volumes in June.
Domestic sales of Maruti Suzuki slipped into the negative for the fourth consecutive month in June recording a drop of 15 percent to 114,861 units as against the same month last year.
The compact segment where Maruti sells models like Wagon R, Swift, Baleno and Dzire fell 12 percent while the utility vehicle segment with models like Ertiga, Brezza witnessed a decline of 8 percent during June.
Hyundai Motor India, the country’s second-largest carmaker, saw a drop of 7 percent in domestic volumes to 42,007 units during June. The drop was on the back of new launches by the company such as Venue and Santro.
Toyota Kirloskar reported a 19 percent fall in domestic sales to 10,603 units during the same month. This is despite the additional supplies of 1,830 units from Maruti Suzuki of the Glanza hatchback (rebadged Baleno).
Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “The industry has been witnessing a continuous decline in domestic sales owing to several factors that have contributed to the weak consumer sentiment. The prevailing economic uncertainty, uncertainty on monsoons, high-interest costs, tight liquidity and also the underlying apprehensions surrounding BS-VI introduction in a few months have steered the slowdown.
Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), the utility vehicle specialist, recorded a growth of 4 percent in domestic passenger vehicle sales riding on new launches such as XUV300 and Marazzo. The Mumbai-based company clocked sales of 18,826 units during June.
Veejay Ram Nakra, Chief of Sales and Marketing, Automotive Division, M&M said, “The market sentiment continued to remain subdued, especially in the passenger vehicles segment. We are happy to register growth on the back of our three recent product launches. Further, we continued to correct our channel inventory both in the personal and commercial vehicle segments in June 2019.”
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