Rising Demand, New Offerings Boost Motown Wholesales In June

Riding on a sustained healthy demand trend, uptick in India’s economic recovery and the benefits of improving chip supplies, India’s automobile manufacturers have posted strong wholesales of passenger vehicles (PV) and commercial vehicles (CV) in June 2022 as per the monthly data released by companies even though supply side issues remain a constraint to achieving a higher potential.

“Demand for passenger vehicles continued to stay strong in Q1 FY23 even as the supply side remained moderately impacted due to the lockdown in China,” said Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility.

Yuichi Murata, Director, Marketing and Sales, Honda Cars India agrees that it was a good month in terms of automotive sales consumption as Honda Cars registered 7,834 units of domestic sales in June 2022 as against 4,767 units sold within the country in June 2021, spurred by a robust demand trend for the Honda products.

Supply side challenges with chip shortage though continued to affect the company’s production and dispatches in June. “Unfortunately, this situation still persists and clear signs of recovery are not visible yet,” adds Murata.

The company which sells Honda Jazz, Honda Amaze, Honda WR-V, exported 2502 units last month as compared to 1,241 units in the corresponding month of 2021 and is banking on recent offerings like the new City e:HEV, to draw customers’ attention and interest towards strong hybrid technology and boost wholesales and exports.

Hyundai Motor India saw a 21 per cent year-on-year increase in the domestic sales of its cars at 49,001 units in June 2022 from 40,496 units sold in June 2021 as the sales number again started showing a positive trend with an easing out of the semi-conductor situation, according to Tarun Garg, Director of Sales, Marketing and Service of HMIL.

However, the export of cars fell by 4.5 per cent at 13,350 units from 13,978 units dispatched outside the country in June 2021, leading to cumulative sales of 62,351 units for the month of June 2022.

Hyundai India forms a critical part of the company’s global export hub, exporting to around 85 countries across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Australia, and Asia Pacific and the company is treading with guarded positivity over the public and market response to the newly launched Hyundai VENUE.

The company sells car models across 10 segments including Grand i10 Nios, i20, i20 N Line, Aura, Venue, Verna, Creta, Alcazar, Tucson and Kona Electric.

Despite global supply chain constraints, Kia India’s sales zoomed to 24,024 units in June 2022, marking a 60 per cent yoy growth over June 2021, its highest ever monthly sales with models like Sonet and Seltos which have been fuelling the compact SUV segment's growth in the country’s buzzing SUV market.

The June sales has also helped the company to cross the 1 lakh sales mark in the first six months of 2022 with dispatches of 121,808 units in the domestic market as the Korean car maker leverages people’s preference, extensive research and customer-centricity to drive in numbers, according to Hardeep Singh Brar, Vice President and Head of Sales and Marketing.

The company which also has a growing waiting period on the models is taking adequate measures to optimise the production and deliver to the customers at the earliest possible.

However, the company sold a total of 122,685 PVs including the SUVs in its stable, registering a 2 per cent decline against 124,280 in June 2021. The company attributes this decline to shortage of electronic components even though it took all possible measures to minimise the impact.

As part of its strategy to increase sales, Maruti Suzuki launched a new variant of its compact SUV, Brezza. The car has been equipped with a cutting-edge technologies along with next-gen comfort and convenience features with stylish design and advanced safety features in a market which is seeing a steady flow of SUV offerings.

Mahindra & Mahindra is also monitoring the supply chain situation closely even as the leading automaker pushed a sustained demand for utility vehicles brands to record overall auto sales of 54,096 vehicles for June 2022, a 64 per cent yoy growth.

The passenger vehicles segment which includes UVs, cars and vans notching up sales of 26,880 vehicles. Of this, a whopping 26,620 were Utility Vehicles including XUV700, Thar, Bolero and XUV300, making "Q1FY23 (April-May-June) as its second consecutive highest SUV sales quarter,” as per Veejay Nakra, President, Automotive Division.

The company sold 16,636 units of SUVs in June 2021. In the Commercial Vehicles segment segment, Mahindra sold 20,431 vehicles in June 2022 with all the light commercial vehicle segments and heavy commercial vehicles continuing their growth trajectory in June 2022. Exports for the month were at 2,777 vehicles.

For home brand Tata Motors cautious optimism on the overall demand is the mood as it keeps a close watch on interest rates, transporter profitability, commodity prices and semiconductor availability. Navigating the challenges, Tata Motors posted record-breaking monthly sales in June 2022 with the monthly figure at the highest ever level of 45,197 units, a 87 per cent increase over what the salt-to-automobile conglomerate sold in June 2021.

The company registered total sales of 231,248 units of vehicles in the domestic and international market for the first quarter of FY23 growing by 101 per cent over Q1 FY22 when it sold 114,784 units. Passenger vehicle sales for Q1 FY23 at 130,125 units was also the highest ever, posting a growth of 102 per cent over the same period of FY22 with the SUV portfolio contributing 68 per cent of Q1FY23 sales.

The sale of CVs in the domestic market was 95,703 units, 121 per cent higher than Q1 FY22 which was a COVID impacted quarter. However, the international business declined during the June quarter of FY23 by 23 per cent over the same quarterly period of FY22, majorly due to a drop in industry volume on account of the financial crisis in Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Amidst the challenges that are impacting the supply chain, companies like Volkswagen Passenger Cars India are lining up strong product portfolio to shake up a segment which has worked well for its sales alongwith a robust network of 152 sales touch points, service facilities in 114 cities and efforts to make the brand accessible.

The company doubled its sales volume in the first half (H1) of 2022 over the corresponding period of 2021 by selling 21,588 units of its product portfolio as against 10,843 units in H1 2021, attributing the performance to a growing demand for its SUVW Taigun and new offerings like Volkswagen Virtus in the premium midsize sedan segment, leading to delivery of over 2,500 sedans since its launch in India on 9 June 2022.

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