Maruti, Tata Motors report marginal growth in passenger vehicles sales

Continuing the muted demand trend, sales of passenger vehicles in February for market leader Maruti Suzuki grew by marginal 0.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) at 1,36,912 units.

While passenger vehicles sales in the April-June quarter had clocked a 20% y-o-y growth, the trend has reversed since then. Post the September quarter results, Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava had pointed out that the festive season was a dull one.

While Maruti’s mini segment and old Wagon R declined 27% y-o-y, compact segment with Baleno, Swift and Dzire witnessed a growth of 11% y-o-y at 72,678 units.

Analysts with Motilal Oswal believe that the wedding season this year failed to perk up demand. “PV demand trend remained mixed across major markets with inquiries to sales conversion continuing to remain weak for existing models. However, new product launch such as XUV3OO, Marazzo, Ertiga, and WagonR helped bring footfalls to the dealerships,” analysts noted.

While Tata Motors reported a growth of 2% y-o-y due to the Harrier launch in January this year, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) reported a growth of 17% y-o-y at 26,109 units on the back of newly launched XUV3OO sports utility vehicle.

Ashish Modani, assistant vice president, corporate sector ratings, Icra, said: “Given high discounts and several new launches in the recent months, there are some signs of recovery at dealership level. However, full recovery is still sometime away. With the country entering into election phase during the quarter one of FY20, consumer sentiments will continue to remain cautious in the near term, which will weigh on the PV demand.”

On the commercial vehicle front too, demand remained subdued with Tata Motors declining by 5% y-o-y at 39,111 units. The market continues to exhibit subdued demand sentiments on the back of slowing economic activity, high interest rates, lag effect of implementation of revised axle load norms, slowing industrial output and declining IIP growth index along with the high base effect in the second half of FY18, the company said in a press statement.

The company’s M&HCV truck segment declined 18% at 12,437 units while the I&LCV truck segment recorded a growth of 4% with 5,017 units in February 2019.

At Ashok Leyland and M&M too, volumes remained tepid with the marginal growth of 1% y-o-y at 17,352 units and 21,154 units, respectively.

Analysts believe that high-base effect and overall subdued consumer environment contributed to lower sales and that the demand environment will improve gradually in FY20 on the back of pre-buying and continued traction from the construction sector.

With demand scenario being no different for two-wheelers, Bajaj Auto posted a growth of 6% y-o-y at 1,86,523 units. However, the company had sold 2,03,358 units in January this year. Similarly, for TVS Motors, growth of two-wheelers was 0.5% y-o-y at 2,31,582 units.