After the festive rush, car dispatches to dealerships take a breather for large makers

NEW DELHI: Car deliveries to dealerships took a breather for Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors in November after the festive rush, while companies such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Toyota and Honda Cars had a healthy growth in wholesales at a time when companies usually keep inventory levels under check towards the close of the year.
The two-wheeler industry, possibly low on inventory, had strong dealer dispatches with all the top three makers – Hero Moto, HMSI and TVS – registering double-digit growth in volumes.

Maruti (1.3 lakh units) had a muted month when it comes to growth in wholesale deliveries, while Hyundai (49,451 units) managed to eke out a 3% movement. Tata Motors was exactly flat in its numbers at around 46,000 units. Mahindra, which has a huge pending delivery backlog, had a 32% growth in wholesales at around 40,000 units, while Toyota had a 51% growth at 17,000 units.
Car companies generally cut dispatches to dealerships and maintain low inventory towards the end of the year as customers prefer to buy cars made in the new year from January. Companies are now trying to get customers to showrooms by talking price hikes from January, blaming higher cost of inputs.
While production in the industry has somewhat normalized after the severe shortages earlier due to the semiconductor crunch, companies say that the situation still remains fluid, and fresh disruptions cannot be ruled out.
The industry is likely to cross 4 million units in sales in 2023, creating a record in total volumes.