Amid positive sentiments on cyclic recovery, softening raw materials and easing of supply chain issues, India’s auto makers posted healthy wholesale volumes in the month of January 2023, as monthly sales figures released by auto firms on Wednesday showed. According to Nomura analysts Kapil Singh and Siddhartha Bera, India’s PV industry wholesales are estimated at 333k units, up 10 per cent year-on-year in February 2023.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has emerged as a catalyst with wholesales of 15,338 units for the month of February 2023. This is a significant 175 per cent yoy gain over the month of February of last year, where the company had sold 8745 units. The month of February 2023 also saw a 120 per cent growth over the sale achieved in January 2023 where TKM sold 12,835 units. In addition, the company also posted a strong growth of 175 per cent for the months of January-February 2023 when TKM sold 28,173 units as compared to 16,073 units in the January-February period of 2022. “Leading this growth, are the Urban Cruiser Hyryder and All New Innova Hycross,” said Atul Sood, Vice President, Sales and Strategic Marketing. The recent announcement of opening of bookings for the Toyota Hilux is also resulting in good orders from across the country but the company is also focusing on enhancing reach in the country through the introduction of two new dealerships in the month of February at Surat (Gujarat) and Bhiwandi (Maharashtra), Sood pointed out, adding that TKM expects to close this quarter on a high note, in comparison to last year.
Amnish Aggarwal, Head of Research, Prabhudas Lilladher expects healthy PV volumes led by strong demand for SUVs and premiumisation trends, healthy order backlog and new model launches. As a reflection of this, led by a positive trend in overall sales numbers across segments, Kia India also sustained its growth momentum, selling 24,600 units in February 2023, with a strong 35.8 per cent yoy growth, one of the highest marks compared to 18,121 units sold in the corresponding month last year led by the Kia Sonet as the top contributor with 9,836-unit despatches. This was followed by the Seltos with 8,012-unit sales. Marking its one-year launch in India, Carens kept its performance steady with sales of 6,248 units in the last month and the Carnival maintained its healthy performance with the contribution of 504 units to Kia India’s February sales figure. Confidence of the Indian consumers, developing products that create benchmarks in their segment and the industry and the ability to fill the need gap in the family mover segment with Carens have helped the company to achieve 35.8 per cent growth against the industry’s growth of 10 per cent says Hardeep Singh Brar – National Head, Sales & Marketing, Kia India. Kia India has sold 76,904 units of the model, at an average of almost 6,000 units a month and was among the top 10 UVs sold in the year.
Hyundai Motor India posted 6.7 per cent year-on-year growth in domestic sales of 47001 units as compared to 44 050 sold in February 2022. Export sales jumped 19.1 per cent yoy at 10850 units over 9109 units in the same month last year, taking cumulative sales for the month of February 2023 to 57851 units, an 8.8 per cent jump yoy of cumulative performance of 53 159 in the corresponding month of 2022. The key drivers, according to Tarun Garg, Chief Operating Officer, HMIL were the newly launched Hyundai IONIQ 5, TUCSON, Grand i10 NIOS and AURA which are receiving tremendous customer response. “Moreover, Hyundai CRETA building on its strong legacy has set a benchmark registering sales of 8.3 lakh units since inception,” says Garg.
Maruti Suzuki India sold a total of 172,321 units in February 2023, posting a 5 per cent yoy growth over February 2022 sales of 1.64 lakh units. The company’s total sales in the month included domestic sales of 150,823 units, sales to other OEM of 4,291 units and exports of 17,207 units. “The shortage of electronic components had a minor impact on the production of vehicles, mainly in domestic models. The Company took all possible measures to minimise the impact,” as per a MSIL statement.
Mahindra & Mahindra’s overall auto sales for the month of February 2023 stood at 58,801 vehicles, registering an 8 per cent growth driven by SUV sales which registered 10 per cent growth in February 2023. “We continue our trend of selling more than 30,000 SUVs per month, says Veejay Nakra, President, Automotive Division, M&M. Key to this robust show is the company’s recent launches including Thar RWD and XUV400 which have received a positive response and good demand across its overall portfolio. “We are monitoring and taking appropriate steps on the supply chain scenario of semi-conductors, which continue to be dynamic,” said Nakra. In the utility vehicles segment, Mahindra sold 30,221 vehicles in February 2023, despite disruptions in supply chain of crash sensors and air bag ECUs due to unavailability of semi-conductors. The passenger vehicles segment (which includes UVs, cars and vans) saw sales of 30,358 vehicles in February 2023. In the commercial vehicles segment, Mahindra sold 20,843 vehicles in February 2023. Exports for the month were at 2,250 vehicles.
There are also some modest shows by auto companies in February 2023 sales. Amnish Aggarwal, Head of Research, Prabhudas Lilladher voices concern that players with higher exposure to US and Europe might remain under near term pressure.
Honda Cars India reported a 15 per cent yoy dip in sales in the domestic market at 6,086 units in February. The company had sold 7,187 units in the domestic market in February 2022, HCIL said. Export numbers stood at 973 units in February ’23. The company had exported 2,337 units in February’ 22. Yuichi Murata, Director, Marketing and Sales, HCIL attributed the lower sales performance in the month of Feb’23 as being in sync with the company’s plan towards seamless transition of models to new emission norms. “We are currently gearing up for the launch of New City, and we are confident that it will generate new excitement and appealing options for customers,” said Murata.
Tata Motors registered total sales of 79,705 units in the domestic and international market in February 2023, posting a 2.5 per cent growth over last year. The company sold 77,733 units during February 2022. Domestic sale of MH&ICV in February 2023, including trucks and buses, increased to 17,282 units, compared to 14,596 units in February 2022. The total MH&ICV domestic and international business in February 2023, including trucks and buses, stood at 17,928 units compared to 16,306 units in February 2022. India’s largest CV manufacturer has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with State Bank of India to offer financing solutions for the purchase of the all-new Tata Ace EV, an advanced, zero-emission, four-wheel CV.
In the two wheeler space, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) announced sales of 247,175 units for February 2023. The company’s total sales included 227,064 domestic and 20,111 exports for the month. Hero MotoCorp sold 394,460 units in February 2023 which translates into a double-digit growth of 10 per cent over the corresponding month of the previous year when the company had sold 358,254 units. The volumes in the month of February indicate the continuously improving consumer sentiment and the company expects the positive trend to continue in the coming months, on the back of favourable economic indicators.
Eicher Motors’ Royal Enfield sales rose 21 per cent and total motorcycle sales rose 21 per cent yoy to 71,544 units in February. Chennai based TVS Motor’s sales decline as exports dropped sharply. Total dispatches fell 2 per cent to 2.76 lakh units. While the two-wheeler sales remained flat, motorcycle dispatches fell 12 per cent to 1.26 lakh units, while scooter sales jumped 21 per cent to 1.05 lakh units.
According to a Motilal Oswal Financial Services report, weakness in rural demand persists on the two wheeler front. Demand sentiments in urban belts are better off than rural centric belts but marriage season demand (contributing 20-25 per cent in key states such as UP and Bihar) has helped to somewhat offset the subdued demand in rural areas. Average inventory for 2W stands at a comfortable level of 4-5 weeks.uti