Car sales rise 23% to record of 37.93 lakh units in 2022

Pune: Car sales jumped by 23 per cent to a record of 37.93 lakh units in the country in 2022 led market leader Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Honda and Skoda as car makers rode on easing of pandemic related challenges and semiconductor shortages to cash in on pent-up demand, especially for SUVs.

“The industry wholesales in January to December 2022 were just short of 38 lakh units. It was 37.93 lakh units against 30.82 lakh in 2021, which is a growth of 23 per cent,” Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer, marketing & sales at Maruti Suzuki told reporters in a virtual conference.

He said the 2022 wholesales are the highest ever in the industry for a calendar year and the last highest was in 2018 which was 33.3 lakh units. “'So, this is about 14 per cent higher than the highest ever,” Srivastava pointed out.

He said this sales resurgence to the highest ever level is partly because of the better availability of semiconductors because last year was impacted by the semiconductor issue.

Also, there were fewer challenges of COVID-19 pandemic last year, adding there was also ''an element of pent-up demand for cars'', he pointed out.

Srivastava said demand for SUVs continued to grow and stood at around 42.3 per cent of the total passenger vehicle sales. In terms of product mix on the basis of price, he said, ''It appears that about 40 per cent of the vehicles sold in the industry were in the bracket of Rs 10 lakh or above.''

For Maruti Suzuki, sales in the calendar year 2022 were at 15.76 lakh units against 13.64 lakh units in 2021, a growth of almost 16 per cent, he added.

Its rival Hyundai Motor, India’s second largest carmaker, also reported its highest-ever domestic sales at 5,52,511 units in 2022 with a growth of 9.4 per cent over 5,05,033 units posted in 2021.

Tarun Garg, director (sales and marketing) at Hyundai Motor India, said a strong product portfolio aligned with consumer trends has led to the company’s highest-ever domestic sales in 2022.

“Despite strong headwinds in the last few years, we have continued to challenge existing boundaries and establish new Industry benchmarks. SUVs now contribute to more than 50 per cent of our overall volumes...,'' he pointed out.

Similarly, Shailesh Chandra, MD at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility said for the passenger vehicles division the calendar year 2022 has been “a momentous year as we outpaced industry growth and crossed the distinctive milestone of 5 lakh units comfortably to post wholesale of 5,26,798 units.”

Toyota Kirloskar Motor too reported a 23 per cent rise in total wholesales at 1,60,357 units in 2022 as against 1,30,768 units in 2021.

The company said the 2022 sales were the highest wholesales in the last 10 years beating the previous record of 1,72,241 units posted in 2012.

Honda Cars registered a growth of 7 per cent by selling 95,022 units in the domestic market in the calendar year 2022 against 89,152 units in CY 2021.

Similarly, Skoda said it had the “biggest year” in 2022 with over two-fold jump in sales at 53,721 units as against 23,858 units sold in 2021.

In December, Maruti Suzuki's domestic wholesales were at 1,13,535 units last month as against 1,26,031 units in December 2021, down 9.91 per cent as the company adjusted production to reduce dealer inventory.

On the other hand, Hyundai reported 20.2 per cent growth last month at 38,831 units as compared to 32,312 units in the year-ago month.

Similarly, Tata Motors also reported a growth of 13.4 per cent in its domestic passenger vehicle sales at 40,043 units last month as against 35,299 units in December 2021.

Skoda also reported a 48 per cent rise in sales at 4,788 units in December 2022 as compared to 3,234 units in December 2021.

However, Toyota Kirloskar Motor posted a 3.8 per cent decline at 10,421 units in December 2022 as against 10,834 units in December 2021.

MG Motor posted retail sales of 3,899 units in December 2022, a year-on-year growth of 53 per cent over December 2021.