While Maruti Suzuki has seen festive sales increase 24% during Onam, Hyundai volume has increased 10%. Overall, more than a million vehicles are expected to be sold in the 83 days between Onam and Bhai Dooj. Automakers sold 892,000 passenger vehicles during the festive season in 2022.
“The festive season has begun with good growth during Onam in Kerala,” said Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer (marketing and sales) Maruti Suzuki. “With semiconductor shortage easing, we are working on increasing production to reduce waiting period on models which are in high demand, like Brezza, Ertiga, XL6, Fronx and Jimny.”
Onam marks the start of the festive season, which reaches a high with Diwali, running from the third week of August to about mid-November. As much as a quarter of the annual passenger vehicle sales in the local market happen during the festive season.
Tarun Garg, chief operating officer, Hyundai Motor India, said, “Although pent-up demand has disappeared, we are seeing a healthy momentum in fresh bookings. Our newly launched SUV (sport utility vehicle) Exter has already got about 70,000 bookings. With supply constraints easing, we have ramped up production and expect to deliver vehicles to meet customer demand this festive season.” Hyundai Motor India has increased production by 4,000 units a month since July to reduce waiting period on popular models such as Creta and Venue, which now stands at about a month compared to about six months earlier. Sales should grow in double-digits during this festive season, said Hardeep Singh Brar, head (marketing & sales), Kia India. The company has received strong demand for its recently launched upgraded version of midsize SUV Seltos. In the commercial vehicle segment, said Shenu Agarwal, managing director at Ashok Leyland, increase in consumption during the festive season should revive sales of light commercial vehicles, which saw some pressure in the first five months of this financial year. “So far, the increase in sales of light commercial vehicles has been lower than expected. But we expect demand to pick up in the festive season, with full-year growth coming in line with our estimates of 5-6% for the segment,” he said.
Automobile retailers, too, expect good festive demand this year. “If automakers manage inventories well and increase supplies of vehicles which are in demand, this should be a record-breaking season,” said Nikunj Sanghi, managing director, JS Fourwheel Motors, a dealer for Mahindra & Mahindra and Hero MotoCorp.