Auto sales remained lukewarm in the month of November despite decent festive season sales with majority of automakers recording a year-on-year (YOY) decline in sales. Toyota Kirloskar Motor has witnessed a sales decline of 22 per cent in the domestic market selling 8312 units in November 2019 as opposed to 10,721 unit which it sold in the same month last year. However, at 929 units company's exports increased by 39 per cent when compared to 669 units it exported a year ago. Toyota's overall sales (Domestic + Export) stood at 9241 units last month, down by 19 per cent when compared to 11,390 units which were sold a year ago.
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Commenting on the sales performance, N. Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, "We have consciously lowered the volume of vehicles sold to dealers to ensure lean inventory/avoid high market offers, we are adjusting our production to ensure we do not put any excess burden on our dealerships before the shift to BS 6 in April 2020. Positive sentiments in the market have continued to November 2019 which has reflected in the spike in customer orders across all models. The boost in customer orders for all models has sustained this month even after the end of festive season."
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Inventory correction is a common practice in the auto industry when automakers are bound to sell only updated models after a certain deadline. The slowdown in sales is also attributed the inventory correction in a bid to meet the upcoming emission norms which will be regulated nationwide in April 2020. Toyota is expecting sales to improve in the months ahead by means of pre-buying as customers are aware that prices will increase by up to 20 per cent post BS6 transition and even in January to some extent following the model year update and price revision.
