Our Bureau Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) on Wednesday said it has cut down its sales growth forecast for FY19 to 8 per cent from a double-digit growth projected earlier.
Among the main reasons is low demand, largely due to high interest rates, increased insurance costs and GST.
The absence of new model launches this year is also a reason for the revision in sales growth forecast, the company said. However, it also said sales are expected to grow substantially in FY20, an election year.
MSIL Chairman RC Bhargava told reporters here that ahead of transitioning to BS-VI emission norms, the company will stop producing a majority of its BS-IV models by December 2019.
“Our plan is for all new models to be introduced in the next financial year to be BS-VI. Production of a majority of the existing BS-IV models will come to a stop by December 2019,” he said.
Restricted production
From then, BS-IV vehicles will be produced only on a demand basis, or if the company feels it can manage the distribution and registration of such vehicles ahead of the deadline, he added.
Talking about sales, he said: “In the last five months, sales have been flat for Maruti while the industry saw negative growth. The question therefore is what happens next. In wholesale, we expect sales to go up by 5 per cent in the January-March quarter…so we are looking at a growth of around 8 per cent for the ongoing fiscal.”
In the first half of this year, MSIL had posted sales growth of 10.5 per cent, whereas it was flat in the third quarter.
Plans for 2019
The next year will see some model launches, said Bhargava. “In the January-March period, we will have a new model which will again push volumes for us,” he said, adding that the newly-launched version of Ertiga will also contribute substantially as it has been received well in the market.
The company will launch its famous mini car — WagonR — with new features, and also a smart hybrid version, early next year.