NEW DELHI: It’s not business as usual for the automobile industry as only a few original equipment Makers (OEMs) reported sales on 1 May. However, Nomura Ratings estimates that the passenger vehicle industry wholesales at 337000 in April 2024, displaying 2 per cent yoy growth, slightly below the rating agency’s expectation of 343000. The PV dispatches from showrooms are forecast at 317000-320000, representing 20,000 inventory additions in April 2024.
Arun Agarwal, an analyst at Kotak Securities estimates that the PV industry’s domestic wholesale volumes increased by a low single-digit over April 2023. According to Kapil Singh and Siddhartha Bera of Nomura, the 2W EV retail sales share declined month on month to 4 per cent (from 9 per cent in March 2024) to 64000 units and 4.3 per cent yoy due to pull-forward of demand in March 2024 as the subsidy was reduced in April. Ola’s (unlisted market share increased to 52 per cent from 37 per cent in March 24.
Among PV majors, Nissan Motor India registered consolidated wholesales of 3043 units in April 2024, of which domestic wholesales were 2404 units while export wholesales stood at 639 units. The Japanese carmaker marked the third consecutive year of achieving 30,000+ sales with the Nissan Magnite. According to Saurabh Vatsa, Managing Director, the fiscal year has begun well with recent network expansion through new dealerships at New Delhi and Durgapur to provide accessible experiences across regions as the company looks to attract more customers and increase its share in the B SUV segment. Since its debut in December 2020, the Magnite has recorded sales of over 100,000 cars in the domestic market and more than 30,000 units as exports to 15 global markets.
Mahindra & Mahindra’s overall auto sales for the month of April 2024 stood at 70,471 vehicles, a growth of 13 per cent, including exports. The domestic sales for commercial vehicles stood at 22,102. Mahindra Auto sold 41,008 SUVs, a 18 per cent growth and total volumes of 70,471, a 13 per cent growth in April 2024 and overall, 41,542 vehicles, including exports. Nomura says that Maruti Suzuki domestic PV wholesales were flat yoy and broadly in line with its estimates and retails are expected to be to lower than wholesales as channel inventory likely increased to 4 weeks. “We estimate wholesale market share at 40.9 per cent and retail market share at less than 40 per cent. The company has commenced new Swift bookings and is likely to launch the model soon,” say Singh and Bera of Nomura.
On the two wheeler front, for the month of April 2024, Agarwal says the players reported strong domestic wholesale volumes, possibly driven by channel filling owing to the Navratra festival. Most of the players in the two-wheeler segment posted double digit volume growth on a yoy basis. Royal Enfield domestic wholesale was 75000, up 9 per cent yoy, which was below industry growth and below Kotak estimate. Total volumes were 82000, up 12 per cent.
Honda Motorcycles registered a positive double-digit growth for the month of April 2024 with HMSI dispatches at 5,41,946 units, registering a strong 45 per cent yoy jump. This includes domestic sales of 4,81,046 units and 60,900 units exports. The domestic sales for the month registered a strong 42% YoY growth while the exports grew by a massive 67% over the same period of last year. The company inaugurated a new state-of-the-art engine assembly line at its global resource factory in Manesar, Haryana, with focus on completely knocked down exports. The company achieved the remarkable feat of selling 8 million units in Eastern India, which comprises of – Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, and North-East India.
Hero MotoCorp sold 533,585 units of motorcycles and scooters in April 2024. This translates into a robust 34.7 per cent growth over the corresponding month (April 2023), when it had sold 3.96 lakh units and a sequential growth of 9 per cent over the previous month’s (March 2024) sales of 490,415. The volume growth in the month of April highlights the company’s sales trend, especially in the 125cc and 400+cc segments. The Xtreme 125R is witnessing a strong pull across the country and the company is swiftly ramping-up supplies to ensure smooth deliveries.