Auto sales in fast lane on easing chip shortage blues

New Delhi: Automakers Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Kia reported robust growth in their vehicle dispatches in the domestic market for August buoyed by festive demand and easing of semiconductor shortage woes.

Other manufacturers like Hyundai, Toyota and Skoda also reported growth in wholesales in August as compared with the same month last year.

The country's largest automaker Maruti Suzuki India said its domestic passenger vehicle dispatches increased by 30 per cent to 1,34,166 units in August as compared with 1,03,187 units in the year-ago month.

Sales of mini segment cars, comprising Alto and S-Presso, grew to 22,162 units as against 20,461 units in August 2021.

Similarly, dispatch of compact cars, including Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift, Tour S and WagonR, to dealers rose by 57 per cent to 71,557 units as compared to 45,577 units in the year-ago month.

Utility vehicles, consisting of Brezza, Ertiga, S-Cross and XL6, clocked sales of 26,932 units last month as compared to 24,337 units earlier.

On August numbers, MSI Senior Executive Director (Sales and Marketing) Shashank Srivastava said that coming on top of July's record numbers of 3.42 lakh units and two consecutive quarters of 9 lakh plus units for the industry, it appears that demand continues to be strong and there is a recovery as far as production is concerned.

"In the last three months, the figure is 9.92 lakh units which is the highest number so far seen in the industry. So, it appears that the demand continues to be strong and the supply is also improving," he stated. He, however, cautioned about the buildup of some inventory in the marketplace on account of retail sales being on the lower side than the dispatches to dealerships. Srivastava stated that going into the festive period, Maruti Suzuki was sitting on an order backlog of 3.77 lakh units.

"If we look at the entire industry, the pending orders should be in the range of 7-7.5 lakh units. Now how the production gets ramped up would determine how well the industry performs," he said.

Hyundai Motor India reported a 6 per cent increase in its domestic wholesales at 49,510 units against 46,866 units in August 2021. On the other hand, Tata Motors saw its passenger vehicle wholesales in the domestic market increasing by 68 per cent to 47,166 units last month, as against 28,018 units in August 2021.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) reported an 87 per cent year-on-year jump in domestic passenger vehicles sales at 29,852 units in August. M&M President, Automotive Division Veejay Nakra said the demand across the company's portfolio remained strong and new launches such as Scorpio-N, Scorpio Classic and new Bolero MaXX Pik-up also helped drive growth.