The festive season is generally a happy time across India, not only among the common people but for the automakers as well. The Indian auto industry sees a significant chunk of its overall yearly sales being registered during the festive season every year. The year 2024 is no different as automakers like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi are expecting to post record sales in October, buoyed by the positive consumer sentiment during Navratri, Dhanteras and Diwali.

After witnessing sales slump over the last one or two months, the automakers have started offering a significant amount of discounts and benefits to attract consumers, which is also likely to play a key role in boosting sales, as the OEMs believe. The inventory levels at dealerships across India shot up to an alarmingly high level over the past few months. The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) recently said that car dealers were facing an all-time high inventory level of 80-85 days, equivalent to 790,000 vehicles worth ₹79,000 crore due to aggressive dispatches from the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The offers have shot up this year to reduce this inventory pile-up at dealerships, which was used by low sales.

Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors expecting record festive sales

India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has said that it has delivered about 30,000 units to the customers on the day of Dhanteras alone, which was October 29. Speaking to news agency PTI, Maruti Suzuki India's Senior Executive Officer of Marketing & Sales, Partho Banerjee said that the company is also expecting to deliver another 10,000 units on October 30. He further stated that in 2023, Maruti Suzuki witnessed registration of around 23,000 units during Dhanteras and the number is already surpassed this year.

Banerjee further noted that the auto company is witnessing robust demand and is expecting deliveries of around two lakh units in October 2024. "October is going to be an all-time high for us in terms of retail sales. It will be the highest ever. The earlier highest was 191,476 units in October 2020," he said. The Maruti Suzuki official believes that a sales boost during the festive period would bring down inventory levels for the automaker to around 30 days from the current 36-37 days.

Tata Motors' Passenger Vehicle Division's MD Shailesh Chandra said the homegrown automaker has seen strong growth with a 30 per cent increase in registrations in October compared to the previous year. "As a result, this October, the total registrations for Tata Motors is expected to be the highest ever for the company. On Dhanteras, we will deliver more than 15,000 vehicles, on the back of robust demand for the entire portfolio, including new launches," he added.

Among others, Kia India said that it has delivered around 6,000 cars on Dhanteras. The JSW MG Motor India too announced the delivery of more than 100 MG Windsor EVs in a single day in Delhi-NCR.

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Luxury carmakers echo the same sentiment

While the mass market players are betting big on the festive period to record sales boosts and reduce inventory pile-up woe, luxury carmakers like Mercedes-Benz and Audi too are echoing the same sentiment.

Mercedes-Benz India's Managing Director and CEO Santosh Iyer said that the luxury car market leader has recorded its best-ever sales this Dhanteras backed by new launches like the LWB E-Class and also strongly driven by SUVs like GLC, GLE and GLS. "There has been a sales growth of 10 per cent this Dhanteras compared to last year," he added.

On the other hand, Audi India said it is witnessing good festive demand in October this year, with bookings surging 40 per cent compared to September 2024, and this enthusiastic response reaffirms its commitment to delivering exceptional experiences to our customers across India.

Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head of Audi India, said that this sales growth for the German luxury car major is driven by continued demand for its popular models like the Audi A4, Audi Q3, Audi Q3 Sportback, Audi Q5 and RS performance cars. “Our Audi e-tron range continues to attract substantial interest, supported by strong bookings for the recently launched Audi Q8," he further added.

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