The auto sector continues its 9th consecutive month of negative sales. The future holds no promise of better sales in spite of upcoming festive season. As we take a look at sales of the largest automaker in the country, the last time Maruti Suzuki India reported positive sales figures, was in January 2019.
Ever since then, the sales have been on a downward spiral. Sales dipped 0.8 percent in February 2019, 1.6 percent in March 2019, 17.2 percent in April 2019, 22 percent in May 2019, 14 percent in June 2019 and 33.5 percent in July 2019.
Maruti Suzuki India Limited registered a 36 percent decline in PV sales with 93,173 units sold in August 2019 as compared to 1,45,624 units sold in August 2018. Sales in the past month were also 3 percent lower as compared to 96,478 units sold in July 2019. When we take sales of each of the models in the company lineup into account, it may be noted that it was only the Ertiga and Eeco that posted positive sales while every other model showed de-growth.
Sales of Baleno, DZire and S-Cross increased in August 2019 over sales in July 2019 by 6, 3 and 2 percent respectively. Sales in August 2019 stood at 11,067 units, 13,274 units and 666 units respectively as compared to 10,482 units, 12,923 units and 654 units respectively. However, when comparing sales of these three models with sales in August 2018, it may be seen that each suffered de-growth as compared to 17,713 units, 21,990 units and 914 units respectively, sold in the month.
Speaking about Alto, which was once the best selling Maruti with about 30,000 sales a month. Sales in the past month stood at 10,123 units, down 54 percent as compared to sales of 22,237 units in August 2018. In the past month sales were lower by 13 percent as compared to 11,577 units sold in July 2019.
WagonR was best selling in July 2019. Sales dipped 17 percent in August 2019 to 11,402 units as against 13,658 units sold in August 2018. Sales in July 2019 stood at 15,062 units against which sales dipped 24 percent in the past month. It was also in August 2019 that Maruti Suzuki announced a recall of over 40,000 units of the WagonR to rectify issues with the fuel hose mechanism.
Vitara Brezza sales fell 46 percent in August 2019 to 7,109 units as compared to 13,271 units sold in August 2018, but increased 34 percent as compared to 5,302 units which were sold in July 2019. Swift sales also dipped 35 percent to 12,444 units in the past month as against 19,115 units sold in August 2018 and were also down 2 percent as compared to sales of 12,677 units sold in July 2019.
Eeco sales which had stood at 6,546 units in August 2018 increased to 8,658 units in August 2019, up 32 percent, but lower by 12 percent as compared to sales of 9,814 units in July 2019.
Sales of the Ertiga increased a massive 139 percent in August 2019 to 8,391 units as compared to 3,515 units sold in August 2018. However, sales dipped 9 percent in the past month when compared to sales of 9,222 units sold in July 2019. Taking into account sales of the newly launched XL6, this model added 2,356 units to total sales of Maruti Suzuki in the past month, its first month of launch in the country.
Sales of the Celerio also dipped 50 percent to 4,765 units in August 2019 as compared to 9,503 units sold in August 2018 and were more or less at the same level as compared to 4,805 units sold in July 2019 down just 1 percent.
Sales of the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz also dipped 77 percent in August 2019 to 1,596 units as compared to 7,002 units sold in August 2018 and down 33 percent as compared to 2,397 units sold in July 2019.
Maruti Suzuki Ignis sales dipped 57 percent in August 2019 to 1,322 units as compared to 3,043 units sold in August 2018 sales in July 2019 were also not much higher and stood at 1,563 units. Sales of the Omni and Gypsy cannot be taken into account as both these models have been discontinued.
