Maruti Suzuki Reports Fall in Sales & Profits Amidst Auto Crunch

The country’s largest car manufacturer is stuck with unsold inventory, amidst uncertainty about BSVI and EVs

Maruti Suzuki Ertiga is one of the models that has seen a drop in sales.

(Photo: The Quint)

The auto slowdown continues in the Indian sector, as Maruti Suzuki has reported a drop of 27 percent in net profits compared to Q1 from 2018. The slump in the auto sector is a well documented story by now, and the leading auto manufacturer is bearing the brunt of it, just like everyone else.

These sentiments have grown out of concerns with regards to the country’s mixed approach of upgrading to BSVI fuel (requiring BSVI engines) and of course, the switch to electric vehicles gathering further steam.

While Maruti and Co. claim to be preparing for wholesale changes in the auto sector, the repercussions of those changes are becoming fairly visible on all fronts.

For a company which sells hits like the Alto, WagonR, DZire and Ciaz among others, has battling with unsold stock, which is directly affecting its dealers across the country as well. We have extensively covered this issue in the following video.

The company sold a total of 402,594 vehicles during the Quarter, lower by 17.9 percent compared to the same period previous year.

Maruti Suzuki statement

The aforementioned figure includes exports as well and if you exclude them from the sales numbers than Maruti Suzuki has sold over 3.7 lakh units in the country, which 19.3 percent lower than last year’s Q1 numbers.

People aren’t buying cars right now, but that trend was kind of eased up after Hyundai launched the Venue, MG Motors revealed the pricing of the Hector SUV and Kia doing the same for its Seltos SUV in the country.

So, it’s not as if people have put a zipper on their pockets, it’s just that people would prefer to wait some more time to make the right investment, which won’t get bogged down by the all regulatory issues sooner than later.