Automobile bellwether Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has reported an 80.3% increase in its July-September quarter profit at ₹3,716.5 crore as compared to ₹2,061.5 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

India's biggest carmaker recorded its highest-ever quarterly sale volume, net sales and net profit in this quarter. The company attributed the record rise in profit to higher net sales, softening of commodity prices, cost reduction efforts, and higher non-operating income.

The auto major's net sales for the said period surged to ₹35,535 crore, up 19.6% as compared to ₹28,543 in the second quarter of FY 2022-23, thanks to higher sales volume and product mix.

Maruti Suzuki's EBITDA stood at ₹4,784 crore, which incerased 72.8% YoY as compared to ₹2,768 crore, while the margin rose 360 bps to 12.9% as compared to 9.3% in the year-ago period.

Maruti Suzuki, in a stock exchange filing, says during the quarter, 5,52,055 vehicles were sold, while sales in the domestic market were 482,731 units and 69,324 cars were exported.

This amounts to a 6% rise in total sales in the said quarter as compared to the total sales of 5,17,395 units in the year-ago period, which comprised 454,200 units in domestic and 63,195 units in export markets.

In the first half of the fiscal year, H1 (April-September) FY 2023-24, Maruti Suzuki says it recorded its "highest-ever half-yearly sales volume, net sales and net profit, with a total sale of 1,050,085 units, a growth of 6.6% over H1 FY2022-23.

The sales in the domestic market stood at 917,543 units and exports at 132,542 units. The company registered net sales of ₹66,380 crore in H1 this fiscal year, compared to ₹53,829 crore in the year-ago period. The net profit for the first half of this fiscal stands at ₹6,201 crore against ₹3,074 crore in the year-ago period.

Besides, Maruti Suzuki will issue shares worth ₹12,841 crore to its Japanese parent Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) to acquire a 100% stake in the latter's Gujarat plant. The carmaker will issue 12.32 million equity shares to SMC to acquire Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG), at a price of ₹10,420.85 each, a 2.7% discount to the stock's closing price on Monday. SMG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SMC.

The company is also planning to invest ₹1.25 lakh crore by FY31 to launch 10-11 new models, including six electric vehicles. Most new models will be SUVs (sports utility vehicles), and the capex will be also utilised in scaling up the company's production capacity from 2 million units at present to 4 million units in the next 7 years.

The company plans to increase its model from 17 at present to 28 by FY30-31 and expects a product mix going forward with petrol cars, electric vehicles, hybrid cars, cars using CNG, cars equipped with 20% or more ethanol and possibly cars operating on compressed biogas.

The stock of the company is trading 2.57% or 268.30 points up at ₹10,694.75 on the BSE today.

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