Robust Demand for SUVs Boost Record Sales in February

Also, car sales continued to rise for the second month in a row this year with automakers stocking their dealers with more cars.

Last year, the total number of car wholesales stood at 3,35,324 units.

“This was the highest auto wholesales for February in any year so far, and third highest in any month,” Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director at Maruti Suzuki told FC. He said the demand for SUVs has been robust at 51 per cent of the total sales and with the addition of MPVs, it would rise to 60 per cent.

Significantly, during the first 11 months of this fiscal (April 2023- Feb2024), carmakers sold 38,59,000 units of sedans, utility vehicles and hatchbacks, registering an 8.6 per cent increase from 33,53,000 units in the year-ago period.

Market leader Maruti Suzuki’s wholesales grew 9 per cent at 1,60,271 units as against 147,467 units in the month a year ago.

In a dramatic speed Tata Motors overtook rival Hyundai in passenger vehicle sales last month to be the second largest car maker in the country. Tata Motors sales, including electric cars, in Feb. jumped 20 per cent at 51,267 units, up from 42, 862 units it sold last year.

Hyundai Motor was pushed to third rank even as its sales increased 6.8 per cent year-on-year at 50,201 units last month. “The newly launched Hyundai Creta leads the charge, by clocking a sale of 15,276 units in February, which incidentally is the highest ever monthly sales recorded by this model since its inception in India more than 8 years back in 2015,” said Tarun Garg, COO, Hyundai Motor India.

Sales at Mahindra also soared 40 per cent year-on-year at 42,401 units of SUVs. “To make some of our SUVs available faster to consumers, we launched the Scorpio N Z8S variant and the Thar Earth edition this month,” said Veejay Nakra, President, Automotive Division, M&M.

Sales at Toyota Kirloskar Motor also increased 61 per cent last month to 25,220 units, up from 15,685 units it sold last year. "We continue to witness rising demand coupled with good customer enquiries from across the regions. Notably, the SUV and MUV models are at the forefront of this demand surge," said Sabari Manohar, Vice President, Sales, Service, Used Car Business at Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

Sales at Honda Cars were up at 17 per cent at 7,142 units last month. “The Honda Elevate maintains its strong performance, and the Honda City and Amaze also continue to perform well in their segments,” said Yuichi Murata, Director, Marketing & Sales, Honda Cars India.

The British car maker MG Motor reported an 8 per cent YoY increase in retail sales at 4,532 units last month. Its electric vehicle sales accounted for around 33 per cent of the total units sold.