Indian car manufacturers have reported a record growth in their wholesales (dispatches to dealers) during the calendar year (CY) 2022, most of them riding on the low base year in 2021. However, in the monthly domestic wholesales, some of them have reported decline in sales in December.

For instance, market leader Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) has reported a decline of 9 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in its domestic sales to 1,12,010 units in December as compared with 1,23,016 units in December 2021.

“This drop can be attributed to two factors — deliberate calibration to keep low stock in December. We chose one-litre engine cars. and internal adjustments due to year end. Secondly, for cars with high waiting period like Brezza, XL6, Grand Vitara and Ertiga, availability of semiconductors was a challenge. Hence, we could make only what was available,” Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, MSIL, told reporters in a virtual conference.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor also reported a decline of four per cent YoY in its domestic sales to 10,421 units during the month against 10,834 units in December 2021.

Another Japanese subsidiary Honda Cars India reported a decline of 11 per cent YoY to 7,062 units last month compared with 7,973 units in corresponding month previous year.

However, Tata Motors and Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) both reported growth in their sales numbers during the month, and Tata Motors has again sold more vehicles than HMIL on the monthly sales.

‘Nexon’ maker Tata Motors sold 40,043 units during the month — a jump of 13 per cent YoY compared with 35,299 units in December 2021. HMIL saw a growth of 20 per cent YoY to 38,831 units in December against 32,312 units in same month previous year.

Kia India saw a 95 per cent growth in its sales to 15,184 units (7,797 units). MG Motor India and Skoda Auto India also reported a double-digit growth in their sales numbers during the month.

On the annual basis, Maruti Suzuki reported a growth of 16 per cent at 15.76 lakh units as domestic wholesale compared with 13.64 lakh units in CY2021. HMIL, too, reported its highest-ever domestic sales of 5,52,511 vehicles in CY2022 — a jump of more than nine per cent compared with 5,05,033 units in CY2021. Tata Motors also crossed the five-lakh mark in its domestic sales in 2022.

“For Tata Motors passenger vehicles, CY2022 has been a momentous year as we outpaced industry growth and crossed the distinctive milestone of five-lakh units comfortably to post wholesale of 5,26,798 units,” Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, said.

According to Srivastava of MSIL, the industry has a pending booking of around 7.30 lakh units at the moment.

“The industry wholesales in January to December 2022 were just short of 38 lakh units. It was 37.93 lakh units against 30.82 lakh in 2021, which is a growth of 23 per cent. Sales in April to December was 28,72,000 units against 21,49,000 units last year — a growth of 34 per cent. Its previous best was in CY2018 at 33 lakh total volume,” he added.

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