This year, domestic passenger car sales are anticipated to surpass the 10 lakh mark over the holiday season, with demand, particularly for utility vehicles, staying strong.
This year, the 68-day holiday period spans from August 17 to November 14. Few days in between are not seen as fortunate for purchasing.
Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) of Maruti Suzuki India, said that typically, the holiday season sales make up between 22 and 26% of the total sales for the year.
“With the overall passenger vehicle sales anticipated to be in the range of 40 lakh units this fiscal, the festive season is expected to witness sales of around 1 million units,” he added.
According to Srivastava, the sector has had good sales this year and is anticipated to do so again in the next months.
“In terms of sales this fiscal year, April, May, June, and July were the greatest ever. With almost 3.52 lakh devices sold, July had the second-highest sales ever for a single month. According to Srivastava, August is also anticipated to be in the neighborhood of 3.5 lakh units.
The only two things that need to be closely monitored are how the monsoon behaves between August and September and the demand metrics, which are still strong, he said.
Concerns about the high incidence of auto loans are also raised since around 83% of customers use them to purchase automobiles.
When questioned about Maruti Suzuki India’s sales forecasts, Srivastava said that the firm likewise receives between 22 and 25% of its total annual sales during the holiday season.
“Our performance is typically a little better than the other players because we are particularly strong in smaller centers where people follow the festive period more keenly,” he added.
According to Srivastava, the company’s freshly released models would also help sales throughout the holiday shopping season.
Currently, the biggest automaker in the nation has a market share of around 43% of the whole passenger vehicle market. Similar comments were expressed by Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, who said that the industry anticipates a tremendously successful holiday season this year.
“We all anticipate that the holiday season will be quite successful; demand has been very robust and is at a level that will be sustained for many quarters. Therefore, we feel rather certain about the time frame, he said.
The organization for car dealers, FADA, has observed that as the holiday shopping season approaches, there is optimism about a surge in retail sales. In preparation of the approaching festival season, it said that the inventory level in the PV category has exceeded the 50-day threshold.
The IMD’s forecast for below-average rainfall in August, which might result in reduced agricultural yields, is of more worry, according to FADA, who also underlined that the slowdown in entry-level automobiles is still there.
It warned that this may have an effect on buying power, particularly in rural areas. Over 15,000 car dealers are represented nationwide by FADA.