Covid-19 impact: Maruti cuts production by almost 98 percent in May

India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki had reduced its production capacity by 97.54 per cent in May as the auto industry is still trying to claw back to normalcy amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In a regulatory filing by the company, Maruti said it produced only 3,714 units last month, compared to 1,51,188 units it did in May 2019.

Expectedly, Maruti's key focus has been on passenger vehicles, which accounted for most of the vehicles produced by the company last month. Yet, the number is much less compared to what it did same month last year. The vehicles produced by Maruti in May were mostly passenger cars. The company produced 3,652 passenger vehicles against 1,48,095 units in May 2019, a drop of more than 97 per cent. Only 62 out of the 3,714 vehicles produced by the company were for commercial purposes.

Only 401 units of small cars, like Alto and S-Presso, were produced by Maruti during this phase, which stood at 23,874 units a year ago. Even the compact cars like WagonR, Celerio, Ignis, Swift, Baleno and Dzire saw drastic reduction in production, by almost 98 per cent, during this period. Mid-sized sedan Ciaz too saw its output decline to 163 units in May from 3,834 units in the same month last year.

Comparatively, Maruti produced more vehicles in the SUV and MPV segments. Vehicles like Maruti Vitara Brezza, Ertiga and S-Cross saw a decline in production by about 96 per cent compared to May 2019. 928 units of these cars were produced by the company last month against 24,748 units a year ago.

Maurti's Ertiga MPV and Dzire compact sedan have made it to the list of most-selling vehicles in May. While Ertiga stood second with a sale of 2,353 units, Dzire took the third spot with 2,215 units. The fifth position also went to Maruti Suzuki's multi purpose vehicle Eeco with 1,617 units.

Light commercial vehicle Super Carry's production declined to 62 units last month from 3,093 units in May 2019.