Pune: After a two-month lull, automotive dealers across India have stocked up passenger vehicles in the range of 3.55-3.60 lakh units in September pinning their hopes on brisk sales this festival season.“In Sept. 2023, automakers had stocked 3.60 lakh passenger vehicles with dealers ahead of the festive season and last month it was more or less the same,” Partho Banerjee, Head, of Sales and Marketing at Maruti Suzuki, told a media conference.However, the auto industry expects good retail sales, which would increase dramatically for the auspicious festival period of Navratri and Dussehra this month.“This year passenger vehicle bookings at Maruti Suzuki have touched 2.33 lakh units ahead of the festival season compared to 3.32 lakh units during the same period last year, Banerjee noted, pointing out that bookings were in line with last year and it was a good trend.Banerjee said Maruti was calibrating production with market demand and hence, it had been reducing dispatches of cars to dealers for the last two months. “We are keeping stocks with dealers only for a month,” he said.Last month, Maruti dispatched 4 per cent less year-on-year at 1,44,962 units to its dealers.Sales at Hyundai Motor also dropped 6 per cent at 51,101 units, compared to 54,241 units sold in September 2023.However, sales at Mahindra, the SUV specialist, jumped 24 per cent on year to 51,062 units last month, inching closer to its archrival Hyundai which sold only 39 more units to remain No. 2 in the pack.But sales were down at Tata Motors at 41,063 units, registering an 8 per cent YoY decline, compared to year-ago volumes of 44,809 units.Sales at Kia India, one of the fastest-growing carmakers, recorded sales of 23,523 units last month, clocking 17 per cent Y-O-Y growth compared to the 20,022 units sold in September 2023.Sales at Toyota Kirloskar Motor also soared 14 per cent on year to 26,847 units last month. MG Motor India retailed 4,588 units.
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