Passenger vehicle sales continue to slide in May

The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) Saturday reported a 24.5% decline in domestic wholesale volumes at 123250 units in May.

Sales of passenger vehicles in the month under review dipped 25% to 121018 units. Sales for the company fell across categories. While sales of mini cars Alto and old WagonR dropped 56.7% to 16394 units, those of compact cars (New WagonR, Celerio, Ignis, Swift, Baleno, DZire) slid 9.2% to 70135 units. Demand for midsize sedan Ciaz fell 10.7% to 3592 units. Sales of utility vehicles and vans crashed by 25.3% (to 19152 units) and by 29.7% (to 11745 units) respectively.

The company sold 2232 units of light commercial vehicle Super Carry last month. This is an increase of 31.1% over 1703 units sold in the year-who period.


Meanwhile, honegrown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) registered 1% drop in monthly sales at 20608 units in May. Rajan Wadhera, President, Automotive Sector, M&M Ltd. said, “While consumer sentiment and demand continued to be subdued during the pre-election phase, our focus has been on correcting the channel inventory. Now, with a stable government at the centre and the forecast of a near normal monsoon, we hope to see an improvement in consumer sentiment over the next few months.”