With the festive season going to last 83 days this year, one of the highest after 2021, the passenger vehicle (PV) sales are expected to see a record high due to the pent-up demand this year.
“The festive season starts from Kerala on August 17 every year (the Chingam month) and ends on Bhai Dooj in November (14th this year). We had 24 per cent increase in Onam sales this year compared with last year. This year, it is going to last 83 days, one of the highest, after 92 days in 2021. The lowest festive season was 66 days in 2017-18,” Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), told businessline on the sidelines of the SIAM annual convention here.
He said the festive periods roughly contribute 23-26 per cent of a year’s total sales and added that 2021 was an exception accounting for 32 per of the annual sales, as people were coming out of the Covid lockdown and on top of that had the maximum number of festive days.
“This year, the industry is expected sell 40-41 lakh passenger vehicles. So, if we take 25 per cent of this, sales should cross one million or 10 lakh vehicles this year and this will be the first time it will happen,” he said, adding that last year, the industry sold 9.34 lakh units during the festive season.
Talking about the current month, he said sales are expected to touch 3.61 lakh units, which is another peak (over 3.55 lakh in September 2022) and it may even exceed the last month’s sales of 3,60,897 units.
However, Srivastava also said that there are some uncertainties too – one is interest rates should not go up. “They probably will go up if food inflation goes high. And food inflation can remain high. And, rural sentiment should not be be affected because of rainfall. Rainfall is currently -8 per cent. If these two do not happen, then the industry will do fine,” he added.
Meanwhile, Tarun Garg, Chief Operating Officer, Hyundai Motor India, said, “I think as an industry we have grown 8-9 per cent and Hyundai also by around 9 per cent, and going forward, we feel as Onam was 10 per cent (in sales) over last year’s high base, we expect festive season to contribute 9 per cent to the overall sales because the supplies are better and demand is also there.”
He said looking at the demand, the company has already increased its production capacity by 4,000 units per month since July and will add a total of 50,000 units in Hyundai’s total production.
“That is why you see our domestic volumes grow up from a level of 48,000-49,000 units per month to 53,000-54,000 now. So, we are proactive on that; in the Chennai plant itself, flexibility of 50,000 units per year is already there. And, I think it should help us take care of the festival season,” Garg added.