Maruti Suzuki has announced that its special Dream Series line-up's availability has been extended by a month. The Dream Series range gets more equipment at a special price.
Like most mainstream car brands, Maruti Suzuki has been seeing reduced footfalls at its outlets, with sales witnessing a notable 33.15 percent decline in June 2024 for popular models like the Alto K10 and the S-Presso.
- Dream Series increased footfall by 17 percent for entry-level cars
- Overall sales for entry-level cars down by 24 percent in Q1 FY2025
The brand says that its footfall has increased by 17 percent in its outlets after the launch of the Dream Series line-up, with the special edition model gathering 21,000 bookings so far. According to Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer, Marketing and Sales, MSIL, “The response to the Dream Series has been quite encouraging, and we are going to extend it to July as well. We started [the] Dream Series for the month of June, and it brought about a growth of 17 percent in footfalls."
“While there was some shrinkage that was happening in this core entry-level segment, we were able to register around 21,000 bookings last month. We are now also trying to work out special finance packages for these customers with various banks.”
Maruti entry-level car sales decline by 24 percent
Maruti Suzuki, which has reported a nominal 1.2 percent uptick in Q1 FY25, with total domestic sales of 4,19,114 units (Q1 FY24: 4,14,055), saw sales of entry-level models decrease by nearly 24 percent to 30,816 cars (Q1 FY24: 40,400). The carmaker says that its current inventory is around 37-38 days, and while a 30-day stock is typically considered reasonable in the industry, its numbers are not too high compared to the normal.
“Our existing stock levels are a little high as compared to normal, but they are almost within the standard range,” Banerjee said. To counter the situation, the limited-edition models are aiding Maruti Suzuki with volumes, and as a result, the company has experimented with this strategy on other models as well. For instance, it recently introduced the Fronx Velocity Edition, which is now available on all variants. Given the current scenario, discounts are likely to remain prevalent, and will vary depending on the model and market.
Maruti pending orders stand at around 1.64 lakh units
The company presently has an order book of around 1,64,000 cars by end-June 2024, with the Ertiga CNG accounting for almost 26 percent or 43,000 units. Maruti says that while it is largely able to fulfil customer requirements at the earliest, there is a waiting period of around 2-3 weeks, mostly owing to unique colour preferences.
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