Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL)‘s Nexa channel would sell around six-lakh vehicles in the next financial year (FY) and expects to close this year at around 3.70 lakh units, the company said on Friday.

Nexa, MSIL’s premium channel, has achieved the two-million sales milestone, it said, adding the first million came in four years, while the second million came in three years despite Covid.

“We are hopeful that Nexa, which is currently number four in the industry, will emerge as the second largest brand in the auto industry next year. Nexa has grown by 47 per cent this year, and accounts for about 23 per cent of our total sales; we expect to close this year with sales of around 3.70 lakh units, against 2.55 lakh units last year,” said Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, MSIL.

Currently, Nexa has a market share in excess of 10 per cent of the overall industry on a standalone basis, he said. MSIL sells models such as Baleno, Grand Vitara, Ciaz, XL6 from the Nexa network, and its upcoming products – Fronx and Jimny – will also be sold through its outlets.

Nexa has 460 outlets covering about 280 cities, and MSIL expects these numbers to increase in the next FY.

Srivastava said the company has received 15,500 bookings for the Fronx and slightly higher for Jimny at around 23,500. So, the total was just above 39,000 units.

“The response is good because we have not yet announced the prices and we willstart sales of these models sometime in April,” he said.

Industry growth

Talking about growth in the overall passenger vehicle industry, Srivastava said it is expected to be in the range of 5 to 7.5 per cent.

“This year, industry sales are expected to close at around 3.89 million. That’s a growth of almost 26 per cent over last year’s 3.07 million. So, on a base of 3.89 million, we expect volumes next year to be between 4.05to 4.1 million. Of course, it builds in a lot of assumptions regarding overall economic growth,” he said.

Having said that he added that anything that affects the overall economy always affects the auto industry as there’s a high correlation between auto industry volumes and overall economic growth.

“There are, of course, some red flags that we have to look at, which might impact demand next year. One is the El Nino effect which affects the monsoons, which would affect agricultural income and rural sentiment...rural is almost 27-28 per cent of the overall demand in the industry. Although rabi sowing has been good, we must see how the El Nino affects overall sentiment,” Srivastava added.

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