Maruti Suzuki sees 6.5% dip in PV sales in December in domestic market; stock slips marginally

Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), India's largest passenger vehicle manufacturer, on Monday reported that overall wholesale domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales in the domestic market were at 1,04,778 units in December, which is 6.45 per cent lower year-on-year (YoY) as compared with 1,12,010 units in December 2022. Maruti’s total passenger cars sales declined by 29 per cent to 48,787 units in December 2023.

Total domestic sales, comprising passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and third-party supplies, were at 1,10,667 units last month as against 1,17,551 units in the year-ago period, down 5.86 per cent, Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement.

In the notification, the company said the total passenger cars sales declined by around 29 per cent YoY to 48,787 units during the month as compared with 68,421 units in the corresponding month previous year.

The company sold only 2,557 units of the mini segment (Alto and S-Presso) in December 2023, lowest-ever as compared with 9,765 units in December 2022.

However, the exports jumped to 26,884 units, higher than 21,796 units in December 2022. During 2023, the company's exports touched an all-time high of 269,046 units. In 2022, the total exports were 263,068 units.

According to the data, MSIL's mini segment, which includes cars like Alto and S-Presso, saw its sales drop from 9,765 units in December 2022 to 2,557 units. In the company segment, the sales fell from 57,502 units to 45,741 units during the same period.

In the mid-size segment, the sales more than halved from 1,154 units in December 2022 to 489 units in December 2023.
The only segment which saw a rise in sales was utility vehicles. It witnessed a total sales of 45,957 units against 33,008 units in December 2022. The company offers cars like Brezza, Ertiga, Fronx, Jimny, S-Cross and Invicto in the segment.

The company's light commercial vehicles segment witnessed a rise in sales to 1,714 units from 1,525 units in December 2022.

At 3 PM, shares of Maruti Suzuki India were trading at Rs 10,285.65, down by 0.13 per cent.

Recently, Maruti Suzuki's stock price fell below its 100-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) of Rs 10,220.21.

Earlier, Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India, told Hindu BusinessLine 2024 is likely to see muted growth in the low single digits. Although he added that SUVs will continue to be in demand next year as well. The SUV segment in India has demonstrated substantial growth, recording a 26 per cent increase in the current calendar year.