Maruti Suzuki India has registered a huge sales decline for March 2020 as the company has suspended operations from March 22, 2020 in line with India lockdown
Maruti Suzuki India Limited has revealed their sales figures for March 2020 which stood at 83,792 units. This included a total of 76,976 units in terms of domestic sales and 2,104 units which were sold to domestic OEMs. A total of 4,712 units were exported. This took total sales in FY 2019-20 to 15,63,297 units.
It may be mentioned, that March 2020 sales cannot be compared to sales in the same month of the previous year since the company has suspended operations from March 22, 2020 in keeping with the Government of India policy. The company is committed to offering support to both Central and State Governments and follows the advisories in fighting the COVID-19 virus. Maruti Suzuki is also paying particular attention to the safety and well being of its employees, dealers and customers at this time of a worldwide crisis.
When taking into account segment wise sales in the past month, it may be noted that the compact segment received most attention among buyers in the country. The mini segment, which comprised of the Alto and S-Presso saw sales of 15,988 units in the past month as against 16,826 units sold in March 2019. Sales during the April 2019-March 2020 period saw sales in this segment down 32.9 percent to 2,47,776 units, but then the Maruti Suzuki S-Presso was only launched in India on September 30, 2019,.
In the compact segment, models such as the WagonR, Swift, Celerio, Ignis, Bolero, DZire and TourS together amassed sales of 40,519 units, down 50.9 percent as against 82,532 units sold in the same month of the previous year. Cumulative sales during the April 2019-March 2020 period also dipped marginally by 9.7 percent to 7,87,610 units as against 8,71,864 units sold in the previous financial year.
Sales of Maruti Suzuki Ciaz in the mid size segment dipped 49.3 percent to 1,863 units. This taking sales of passenger cars to 58,370 units, down 43.3 percent as against 1,03,030 units sold in March 2019. Total passenger sales for the period April to March 2020 also dipped 17.6 percent from 12,87,023 units to 10,60,644 units.
In terms of sales of utility vehicles, Maruti Suzuki noted a 53.4 percent decrease in sales in the past month. Total sales of the Gypsy, Ertiga, S-Cross, Vitara Brezza and XL6 stood at 11,904 units, down from 25,563 units sold in March 2019. While when taking sales of vans such as the Omni and Eeco into account, sales dipped 63.7 percent to 5,966 units in the past month from 16,438 units sold in the same month of the previous year. The Maruti Omni has now been discontinued in India in view of new crash test norms to which it does not comply.
These figures took total domestic passenger vehicle sales to 76,240 units in the past month, down 47.4 percent as against 1,45,031 units sold in March 2019 and down 18.2 percent to 14,14,346 units in the period April to March 2020 from 17,29,826 units sold in the same period of the previous year.
Light commercial vehicle segment, which consists of the Super Carry saw 736 units sold in the past month, down 71.5 percent as against 2,582 units sold in March 2019. Maruti Suzuki has now introduced the BS6 Super Carry only with its petrol engine while the CNG variant will comply with the new emission norms shortly. The new Super Carry BS6 is now priced at Rs.4.67 lakhs (on-road) price, a hike of Rs.20,000 over its BS4 counterpart.
Sales to other OEMs stood at 2,104 units in March 2020 while in the period April to March 2020 this figure was at 25,002 units. This took total domestic sales to 79,080 units, down 46.4 percent from 1,47,613 units sold in the same month of the previous year while sales during the months of April to March 2020 dipped 16.7 percent to 14,61,126 units from 17,53,700 units sold in the same period of the previous year.
Total exports, which had stood at 10,463 units in March 2019 dipped to 4,712 units in the past month while total exports during the April to March 2020 period was not so badly off as exports only dipped 6 percent to 1,02,171 units from 1,08,749 units in the same period of the previous year. Thus taking total domestic sales and export down 47 percent to 83,792 units in March 2020 from 1,58,076 units in March 2019 and cumulative figures down 16.1 percent to 15,63,297 units during April to March 2020 from 18,62,449 units during April to March 2019.