Planning to buy a car? Good time ahead with dangling discounts

If you are planning to buy a new car in the coming months, you are likely to get lucrative discounts and attractive offers. This comes at a time when the barrage of price hikes by the OEMs is likely to come to an end following long waiting periods for passenger vehicles during the years of production shortages due to the pandemic and related disruptions like component and microchip shortages. TOI has reported that industry officials and analysts project that 2024 could be a year when the Indian passenger vehicle industry will witness limited growth amid a slump in demand and inventory build-up.

After registering a record 41 lakh passenger vehicles in the 2023 calendar year driven by SUV sales, the Indian car industry is likely to close the current financial year on record volumes of 42.9 lakh units, the industry experts have estimated. However, the pace of booking and car purchase during the last three years may now see a slowdown, the experts have further projected.

Over the last few months, car manufacturers in India have announced price hikes across their portfolio, citing production cost hikes. Additionally, the inflation, high cost of fuel and rising maintenance costs have built up further pressure on consumers, resulting in dwindling consumer decisions when it comes to buying new cars. This may put pressure on the pace of growth in the segment in the coming months, hinted the experts.

In order to keep the sales momentum going, the automakers may start offering attractive discounts and offers in the next financial year. On the other hand, car dealers too may start offering discounts and offers from their end to reduce the inventory level. All of these would eventually benefit the consumers who would opt to buy new passenger vehicles.

What industry experts say?

Speaking on the growth projection for the Indian passenger vehicle industry, Ravi Bhatia, President and Director at research firm JATO Dynamics, said that a variety of factors will keep the growth in the segment muted in FY25. "Apart from a heavier br, the reasons also include cars getting expensive during the previous years and Covid production shortfall being met subsequently. Also, used cars will take up a share from new car sales, especially in the entry category," he reportedly added.

Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer (sales & marketing) at Maruti Suzuki too echoed the same thought. “Going by the current analysis, it looks like growth would be muted, or at best be in low single digit," he said.