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In this State of the Economy Podcast, host S Ronendra Singh speaks with Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer of Marketing and Sales at Maruti Suzuki India on how the automotive industry is navigating a complex landscape of inventory challenges, fluctuating sales, and shifting consumer preferences.
Banerjee discusses the current trends in India’s passenger vehicle market. He addresses concerns about high inventory levels among dealers and the potential impact of these dynamics as the festive season approaches, “During COVID, semiconductor shortages led to low inventory. Ideally, it should be 30-31 days, but with the festive season, dealers need to stock up to avoid losing sales.” Banerjee said.
With the market poised for a possible revival, Banerjee sheds light on Maruti Suzuki’s strategic decisions, such as aligning vehicle dispatches with actual demand to avoid overburdening their channel partners, noting, “We’re aligning retail and wholesale numbers to avoid pushing excess stock to dealers. The true market share is reflected in actual retail sales, not just dispatches.”
Banerjee shares his perspective on the sales performance of various segments, including the rising traction of CNG vehicles. He highlights, “In Q1, we achieved sales of 4.27 lakh units with 1.2% growth, and 34% of these were CNG variants, showing strong market traction.”
He also discusses Maruti Suzuki’s commitment to innovation through limited edition launches and an enhanced warranty programme, stating, “We’ve extended the standard warranty to three years and 100,000 kilometres. With the extended warranty, customers get peace of mind for up to six years and 160,000 kilometres.”
Banerjee further touches on the company’s approach to maintaining market share in the increasingly competitive compact car segment and the potential growth areas in electric and hybrid vehicles, noting, “Our CNG vehicles account for 73% of the segment’s market share, with one-third of our total sales being CNG models—a significant achievement.”
Listen in!
(Host: S Ronendra Singh, Producer: Siddharth Mathew Cherian.)
About the State of the Economy podcast
India’s economy has been hailed as a bright spot amid the general gloom that seems to have enveloped the rest of the world. But several sectors continue to stutter even as others seem set to fire on all cylinders. To help you make sense of the bundle of contradictions that the country is, businessline brings you podcasts with experts ranging from finance and marketing to technology and start-ups
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