Auto markets will see ‘green shoots by October’, says Maruti Suzuki

Updated - August 24, 2024 01:02 am IST

Published - August 23, 2024 09:33 pm IST - Bengaluru

Auto markets, although the overall outlook for the sector this year is expected to remain muted, will see ‘‘green shoots by October’‘, said Maruti Suzuki on Friday.

The industry overall, including the apex body, knew the market this year would be little muted, however, green shoots would emerge during festivals by October, said Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki while responding to a query from The Hindu.

According to him, quarter one was one of the highest quarters for the company. Then, there were elections. Customers were not coming out of homes because of severe heat waves in the Northern and Central zones. Another thing was, the base was very high, last year.

In July, the company also carried out some production adjustments in sync with demand scenarios in the retail market, he agreed.

‘’But we expect to see some green shoots with festivals coming from October onwards. The market is not bad. Monsoon is very good this year, so harvesting is going to be good too. Money will come in for circulation,’‘ Mr. Banerjee anticipated.

To cater to the future demand, Maruti Suzuki is scaling up its NEXA network across the country. The Japanese auto major would have opened 650 NEXA outlets, including 100 NEXA Studious, across the country by the end of FY ‘25. Started in August 2015, NEXA channel currently has 500 outlets in over 300 cities.

According to him, NEXA, being a key channel partner, currently contributes to 32% of the company’s total sales and 40% of total exports. 100 NEXA Studios are planned for tier 2 and tier 3 cities and each of these outlets will have a sales potential of 15 to 20 cars every month. Tier 2 and tier 3 cities currently account for 37% of the company’s total sales.

‘’We are scaling up the pace of our growth to increase customer conveniences across the country. We are targeting cities that have the potential for 15 to 20 vehicles a month,’‘ he said.

Mr. Banerjee further said, Maruti Suzuki exported 2.5 lakh units of cars last year while the company’s vision was to export over a million cars by 2030.

‘’We just dispatched 1,600 units of FRONX made in India to Japan and we have been receiving encouraging responses from customers,’‘ he added.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.