Maruti Suzuki’s domestic sales rise by 1.8 per cent in February

Maruti Suzuki India has announced a slight hike in the domestic sales. The sales numbers for the manufacturer increased by 1.8 per cent in February this year with 99,758 cars delivered to customers. The manufacturer had sold 97,955 units in the same month last year.

The sales of the Swift, Estilo and the Ritz helped in this increase as 28,672 units in all were sold in February in contrast to the 24,021 units in the same month in 2013. This shows a 19.4 per cent boost in sales.

The sales numbers of the Swift Dzire, the compact sedan from Maruti, increased to 18,353 units in February 2014 from 18,316 units in the same month in 2013. Not a single unit of the Kizashi was sold but the SX4 helped with a six per cent increase in sales. In February, 228 units of this C-segment sedan were sold while 215 units were sold in the same month last year.

Despite the marginal increase in domestic sales, the company sees a slight decline in their overall sales. The company sold 1,09,104 cars in February, in comparison to the 1,09,567 units sold in the same month last year. This shows a 0.42 per cent drop in sales. This marginal drop in sales is due to the fall in exports and low sales of the small segment cars in India. The total exports fell by 19.5 per cent as only 9,346 units were sold abroad in February as compared to 11,612 units in the corresponding period in 2013. The number of Maruti 800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR sold dropped by 9.6 per cent with 37,342 units sold as against 41,311 units last year.

The excise duty cut that was announced in the interim budget doesn’t seem to have had a large effect on the car sales yet. However, it is expected that with the decrease in prices of cars, the demand for the vehicles should increase. This should definitely help manufacturers at least to retain the sales figures as compared to the declining numbers seen a few months ago.

Maruti Suzuki recently launched the Celerio which is enjoying a good demand by achieving record bookings. The company will replace the SX4 with the Ciaz next year. This will be accompanied by the introduction of the S-Cross SX4 in the Indian car market some time later. We hope that with the addition of these new products Maruti Suzuki will be able to better the sales figures.