Auto cos cruise to their best-ever festive season this year

New Delhi: Automakers in India recorded their best-ever festive season this year, with passenger vehicle (PV) sales increasing by 41% year-on-year in the three months between the festivals of Onam and Bhai Dooj.

As per initial industry estimates, as many as 1.138 million passenger vehicles including cars, sedans and utility vehicles were sold in the local market between August 17 and November 14.

The previous peak in sales was in the corresponding festival months of 2020, when consumers had bought some 934,000 vehicles. Demand at the time, however, was skewed due to lack of sales during the national lockdown at the onset of the pandemic.


This year, demand increased across categories, including the entry-level, expanding the share of small cars in the overall market to 30% (from 27% seen so far this fiscal). The share of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in overall vehicles retailed in the local market during the season stood at 48-49%.

"The festive season has been good this year," Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer (marketing and sales) at Maruti Suzuki told ET.

Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest carmaker, sold 490,000 units, increasing its market share to about 43% during the period from a little more than 42% so far this fiscal.

Industry insiders said that although the festive season this year was longer--spread over 90 days compared with 71 days in 2022-sales growth was robust (about 15%) even if the additional 18 days were to be excluded.

Onam marks the start of India's main festival season which reaches a high near to Diwali. The festive season accounts for 30-35% of retail sales for carmakers.

Tarun Garg, chief operating officer (COO) at Korean auto major Hyundai, said that although pent-up demand in the market fizzled out with an improvement in supplies beginning last quarter, bookings remained healthy, supporting retail sales in the festive period.

"The festive period starting from Onam in Kerala to Bhai Dooj today has seen a great response from customers for Hyundai vehicles. We have retailed 165,000 vehicles from August 17 (Chingam) till Bhai Dooj. This is a growth of 9% over the same period last year", Garg said. "Our SUVs comprising Creta, Venue and the newly launched Hyundai EXTER have especially seen a major traction. SUVs contributed to around 65% of these 165,000 vehicles retailed by us."

In the two-wheeler segment, consolidated sales of motorcycles and scooters for the festive period is yet to be compiled, but Manish Raj Singhania, president of Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), said demand was particularly good in the last few weeks, albeit on a lower base when compared with passenger cars. "This time, dealers have had good levels of stock. At the retail level, consumer demand has been strong," Singhania said. "Sales seem to have grown in double digits. Two-wheelers particularly have done well, albeit the base is lower when compared with passenger cars."

Saket Mehra, partner, Grant Thornton Bharat, said two-wheeler sales in October, in fact, reached 1.89 million units, approaching the pre-pandemic levels compared with October 2022, when 1.58 million units were sold in the local market.