Indian carmakers are offering almost every car being launched during the festive season at discounted prices. Demand for automobiles has dipped in the current year leading to car manufacturers offering even mint car models at much lower prices.
Even Maruti Suzuki Alto 800, which was one of the bestsellers this year, is coming with a discount of Rs. 16,000 on is on-road price, although it has been just seven weeks since the car was launched. Similarly, Nissan's MPV Evalia, is being offered at a discount of Rs. 20,000 for the benefit of the customers. Chevy’s latest offering Sail hatchback also comes with goodies worth Rs. 15,000, with companies trying to trigger sales in an otherwise sluggish December.
This time of year is generally associated with double digit growth for passenger cars; however, the new entrants in the market along with facelift models failed to have many takers. The only exception in this list is Maruti Alto 800, which had a highly competitive price to attract thousands of buyers even before its launch.
Surprisingly, sales in November went down to the lowest digits in the last four years and December did not bring much to cheer about for the car manufacturers. Consequently, a range of goodies, accessories and discounts are being offered on previous models and new arrivals to push the sales figures to decent numbers.
Chief Operating Officer of Maruti Suzuki (Marketing and Sales), Mayank Pareek, said while addressing media recently, “Retail sales and deliveries are not so enthusiastic this month after some strong demand witnessed during the Diwali season that helped to clear off the inventories.” He further added, “Discounts on cars in December are at the all time high and now many diesel cars that had robust demand earlier have also hit the rebate path.” It is noteworthy that the sales of compact petrol cars offered by Maruti increased by 16% during September to November up to 1,30,589 cars, with the fleet comprising Alto 800, Alto, A Star and Wagon R.
The average discounts on cars in the December this year stood between 13 per cent and 18 per cent, while the discounts were 8 per cent to 15 per cent last year. Up to Rs. 60,000 discounts are being offered on popular cars like Maruti WagonR, Hyundai i10, Tata Indica and Toyota Liva. That, however, is not turning tables for car makers for the month of December.
Sageraj Bariya, Managing Partner of Mumbai-based research firm Equitorials, said, “We are not excepting any turnaround in sales even as freebies and discounts touch their highest point of 2012 as the macro economic conditions have not changed. Inflation and interest rates on auto loans continue to be high that is pushing back customers to buy new cars.”
