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Automakers Honda, Toyota and Maruti Suzuki India are hoping that this festive season will bring some uptick in demand although “great signs” of recovery do not seem to be in the market due to the prevailing negative sentiments.
The companies are banking on festive purchases to lift sales from deep negative declines to somewhat reasonable levels compared to the past five months.
“Looking at things which happened in this fiscal, there don’t appears any great signs, but definitely festival season will bring some uptick as compared to what we have seen in the last five months,” Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) Senior Vice-President and Director (Marketing & Sales) Rajesh Goel told PTI.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations’ (FADA) annual auto retail conclave.
The domestic automobile industry has been going through a prolonged slowdown. For August, Honda Cars India and TKM reported 51 percent and 21 percent drop in sales, respectively.
Besides, Maruti Suzuki India saw its sales decline by 33 percent last month.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Deputy Managing Director N Raja said there might be a slight pick-up in sales during the festive season.
He said things might improve in terms of sales but it is not going to be a dramatic recovery.
In an e-mailed response, Maruti Suzuki India Executive Director (Marketing & Sales) Shashank Srivastava said that under the current scenario, the consumer offers are on the higher end although these vary from time to time and from one region to another.
