Passenger vehicle dispatches cross 3.35 lakh units in Feb

Driven by strong demand, the overall passenger vehicle dispatches crossed 3.35 lakh units in February as automakers, including Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, reported robust sales during the month.

The dispatches of more than 3.35 lakh units last month marked an 11 per cent over February 2022. It was also the highest ever overall wholesales in the month of February.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said its domestic wholesales rose 11 per cent to 155,114 units in February as compared with 140,035 units in the same month last year.

The sales of mini segment cars, comprising Alto and S-Presso, grew to 21,875 units as against 19,691 units in February 2022.

According to the automaker, the sales of compact cars, including Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift, Tour S and WagonR, rose to 79,898 units in February as compared with 77,795 units in the year-ago month.

Utility vehicles, consisting of Brezza, Ertiga, S-Cross and XL6, clocked sales of 33,550 units last month as compared with 25,360 units earlier.

During a virtual interaction, Maruti Suzuki India senior executive officer marketing & sales Shashank Srivastava said that in the April-February period this fiscal, the overall industry sales have risen to 35.5 lakh as compared with 27.47 lakh units in the corresponding period last financial year.

"In this fiscal, we have already dispatched 15.08 lakh units, a growth of 23 per cent from 12.27 lakh units in the April-February period of last fiscal," he noted.

Srivastava also noted that there has been some impact on the demand for new cars due to an increase in interest rates by banks and other NBFCs.

He said the company's order book stretched to around 3.69 lakh units with Ertiga leading the pack with close to 94,000 bookings.

Other models like Grand Vitara and Brezza have an order backlog of around 37,000 and 61,500 units, respectively, Srivastava said.

Further, he said the company has received around 22,000 and 12,000 bookings, respectively, for Jimny and Fronx.

"We plan to commence production of these models by March end," Srivastava said.

He also stated that barring Celerio, all the company models have now been upgraded to conform to the upcoming stricter emission norms from April 1.

The chip shortage situation continued to hamper production of various models, he added.

Hyundai Motor India saw its domestic wholesales increase 7 per cent year-on-year to 47,001 units in February.

Tata Motors said its passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market last month rose to 43,140 units as against 40,181 units in the corresponding period last year.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) said its passenger vehicle dispatches last month rose 10 per cent to 30,358 units as compared with 27,663 units in February last year.

M&M Automotive Division president Veejay Nakra said the company continues to sell more than 30,000 SUVs per month.

"Our recent launches (Thar RWD and XUV400) have received a very positive response and we see good demand across our portfolio as well.

"We are monitoring and taking appropriate steps on the supply chain scenario of semiconductors, which continue to be dynamic," he noted.

Kia India reported a 36 per cent year-on-year increase in domestic wholesales at 24,600 units in February.

"With continued support from our esteemed customers, Kia has recorded another successful sales run in the month of February," Kia India national head sales & marketing Hardeep Singh Brar said.

Achieving 35.8 per cent growth against the industry's growth of 10 per cent shows the love and confidence the Indian consumers have for the brand, he added.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor said its domestic wholesales increased 75 per cent year-on-year to 15,338 units in February 2023.

"Looking ahead, we expect to close this quarter on a high note, in comparison to last year.

"As a customer-centric company in constant pursuit to redefine customer experience, we are continually working to meet the market demand effectively," TKM sales and strategic marketing vice president Atul Sood said.

In the two-wheeler space, Bajaj Auto said its total domestic sales increased 36 per cent to 153,291 units last month as compared with 112,747 units in the year-ago period.