After a lacklustre Dussehra, Diwali too failed to drum up adequate sales for automotive companies in the month of November. And the charts seem to be painting a gloomy picture overall. Most car makers saw their numbers dip by double digits, even when put up against the sales figures of October 2019.
The Indian car market experienced an unpredictable high in the middle of 2018, especially in July, when the numbers across manufacturers saw unprecedented growth. The half-yearly numbers projected a double-digit growth leading to expectations of one of the best festive seasons ever and the highest annual sales as well.
As a matter of fact, despite the political uncertainty being created by the opposition along with the depreciating rupee and the increasing fuel prices, the GDP and the industrial output have been steady. But the buyer sentiment doesn’t seem to have recovered from the shocks, thus putting the sales forecasts for 2018 into a tizzy.
We saw quite a few launches of new products as well as facelifts in the last two months, offering fresh cars for buyers in the festive season. With sales not living up to the expectations, carmakers, as well as dealers, rolled out offers and schemes to attract customers, right from the beginning of November but to no avail. With the inventory building up, dealers along with manufacturers are offering sizeable year-end offers to get rid of 2018 stocks with 2019 just a few weeks away.
But every dark cloud has a silver lining. And one of them is the Santro that is inching towards the 10,000 mark with gusto. The Ertiga has also managed to clock over 6,000 units in its first month and we expect it to shoot it to about 8,000 to cater to the initial bookings. The Mahindra Alturas G4 garnered 216 bookings in the first month.
Overall, the popular models haven’t taken a big hit, which means the core sales are still intact. The uncertainty in the market has been addressed by fuel-price correction. Besides that, the Rupee appreciating, paired with the price hikes announced for January should fuel some sales in the month of December.
