Poor Performance Of Ciaz And Alto Range Hits Maruti Suzuki's Overall Sales

Maruti Suzuki India today released the monthly sales results for February 2019, and the company has announced a marginal decline of 0.8 per cent in total sales. Last month, the company a total of 148,682 units, against the 149,824 units sold in February 2018. Sales in the domestic market were pretty much stagnant with the company selling 139,100 vehicles in February 2019, compared to the 137,900 units sold during the same month last year, registering a marginal growth of 0.9 per cent. On the other hand, exports fell by almost 20 per cent, to 9,582 units, against the 11,924 vehicles exported in February 2018.

Maruti Suzuki's poor performance in the domestic market was mainly because of the falling sales of the company's C-segment sedan Ciaz, de-growth of 37 per cent, with just 3,084 units being sold last month. The same month last year the company sold 4,897 units. Maruti's entry-level segment also saw a significant drop of almost 27 per cent, with just 24,751 units, compared to the 33,789 vehicles being sold in February 2018. This was also because it only accounts for the already aged Alto range and now discontinued old-generation Wagon R.

The new-gen Maruti Suzuki Wagon R is now clubbed with the Swift and Dzire in the compact segment

The new-generation Maruti Suzuki Wagon R, however, is now clubbed with the new Swift, Dzire, Baleno and Ignis, in the company's compact sub-segment, which collectively sold 72,678 units last month. The segment saw a growth of 11.4 per cent, compared to the 65,213 units sold in February 2018. Similarly, the company's utility vehicle sales in February 2019, which includes the Ertiga, Vitara Brezza, S-Cross, and Gypsy saw a growth of 7.4 per cent with 21,834 units, against the 20,324 units sold during the same month last year.

Interestingly Maruti's Omni and Eeco, which mainly cater to taxi service and commercial space, saw a significant growth of 17.2 per cent in February 2019 with 14,565 unit, against the 12,425 vehicles sold during the same month in 2018. As for the company light commercial vehicle Super Carry, Maruti sold 2188 units of the mini-truck last month, compared to the 1,252 units sold in February 2018, a growth of almost 75 per cent.