Car Sales January 2019: Massive Drop In Ciaz Sales Puts Pressure On Maruti Suzuki

The first month of 2019 has gone by and in Maruti Suzuki's case, the sales have stayed flat. One of the key reasons is the sales of Maruti Suzuki Ciaz which saw a big drop of 42 per cent. In January 2018, Maruti sold 5,062 units of the Ciaz and in January 2019, it sold 2,934 units. According to Maruti, the segment in general has slowed down, which in turn has led to the decrease in sales of Ciaz and Maruti Suzuki as well. The drop in the sales of the Ciaz was mitigated by the performance of utility vehicles and vans, which were the highest performing segment for Maruti Suzuki as it sold 22,430 units of UVs in January 2019 as compared to 20,693 units in January 2018, recording a growth of 8.4 per cent. Van sales saw a growth of 23.6 per cent with 15,145 units sold in January 2019 as compared to 12,250 units sold in the same month last year.

The company sold a total of 139,440 units of passenger cars in India in January 2019 as compared to 139,189 units sold in January 2018, registering a growth of a scant 0.2 per cent.

Also Read: 2019 Maruti Suzuki Wagon R First Drive Review

(The Vans segment has done really well for Maruti Suzuki in January 2019)

Maruti Suzuki has just one light commercial vehicle (LCV) which is the Super Carry and the company sold 2,710 units in January 2019 as compared to 1,411 units sold in January 2018, registering a growth of 92.1 per cent. Also, Maruti Suzuki India Limited sold a total of 151,721 units in January 2019. This includes 142,150 units in domestic market and 9,571 units of exports. The total domestic sales grew by 1.1 per cent including the passenger vehicles and LCVs while the exports registered a decrease of 11 per cent. In January 2018, the total sales were 140,660 units and the total exports were 10,751 units.

Also Read: Maruti Suzuki 2019 Wagon R Launched In India; Prices Start At Rs. 4.19 Lakh

The latest launch from the company was the new-generation Maruti Suzuki Wagon R whose prices start at Rs. 4.19 lakh and go up to Rs. 5.69 lakh for the top-spec variant. Not only does the new Wagon R is built from the ground up but also gets a bunch of features and revised styling as well.