Maruti Suzuki domestic PV sales jump 29% in Oct

India's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd posted a 29% year-on-year growth on domestic passenger vehicle sales in October.

Maruti Suzuki sold 140,337 units of passenger vehicles (PVs) in October 2022 compared with 1,08,991 units in the same month last year.

The shortage of electronic components had a minor impact on the production of vehicles, mainly in domestic models, the carmaker says in a statement, adding it took all possible measures to minimise the impact.

Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 1,67,520 units in October 2022. Total sales in the month include domestic sales of 143,250 units, sales to other OEMs of 3,822 units and exports of 20,448 units.

The car manufacturer's exports fell to 20,448 units in October from 21,322 units in the same month last year.

The company's light commercial vehicles (LCV) sales also dipped 23% year-on-year to 2,913 units in October.

Shares of the carmaker dropped as much as 1% to ₹9,435 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday.

The monthly update comes days after the car manufacturer reported a fourfold jump in its net profit to ₹2,061.5 crore during the second quarter compared with ₹475.3 crore in the corresponding period last year. Revenue from operations grew around 46% year-on-year to ₹29,931 crore for the quarter ended September.

Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 5,17,395 vehicles during the second quarter, the highest ever in any quarter. Sales in the domestic market stood at 4,54,200 units in Q2. Exports were at 63,195 units. Shortage of electronic components impacted production by about 35,000 vehicles in the September quarter, the carmaker had said.

Pending customer orders stood at about 4,12,000 vehicles at the end of the second quarter, out of which about 1,30,000 vehicle pre-bookings are for recently launched models.

The operating profit in the second quarter stood at ₹2,046.3 crore as against ₹98.8 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. "The operating profit in Q2 of last year had dipped sharply owing to steep commodity price increases and electronic component supply constraints and hence results of Q2 FY2022-23 are not strictly comparable with those of Q2 FY2021-22," the company said, adding it has been making simultaneous efforts in securing electronic components availability, cost reduction and improving realisation from the market to better its margins.

Last week, the company announced a recall of 9,925 units of passenger vehicles including Wagon R, Celerio and Ignis manufactured between August 3, 2022, and September 1, 2022. "It is suspected that there is a possible defect in the rear brake assembly pin (‘Part’), which in a certain case, may break and cause a peculiar noise. There may be a possibility of an impact on brake performance in the long run. Considering the safety of customers and out of abundant precaution, the company has decided to recall the suspected vehicles for inspection and replacement of the faulty part, free of cost," the company said in a statement.