Waiting for your Maruti car delivery? Carmaker back on clearing pending orders

The global semiconductor crisis is easing down and hence sales of passenger vehicles are getting back on track again. A senior official from Maruti Suzuki India shared that sales of domestic passenger vehicles may touch a record level of nearly 40 lakh units this year as there is robust demand in the market and the auto companies are pushing for more production despite semiconductor shortage.

Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Shashank Srivastava said the chip crisis situation has improved compared to the previous year hence the focus is back on clearing the pending orders of passenger vehicles which have mounted up to around 7.5 lakh units. Among these units, Maruti Suzuki alone has around pending 4.18 lakh units. “In three months' time, that is October, November, December - if we get let's say one million more, then we should be around that 3.8 to 3.9 million units," Srivastava was quoted as saying in a PTI report.

With estimated figures as such, Srivastava informed that this could become a record for the calendar year. One of the key factors for such a number this year, he added, is that the economy is back on the growth path. The previous best sales were recorded back in 2018 with 33,94,712 units. “There is a big correlation between vehicle sales and economic growth. The economic growth is projected to be 7 per cent plus after two years of not so good growth because of Covid-19," he added in the report.

One more factor that has positively affected the sales figures is good traction in almost all segments, some of which faced a pause during the peak of the pandemic. “For example, fleet or taxis, those segments also have started coming back again as the rate of Covid-19 starts to taper down," added Srivastava. He informed that to attend to the needs of the domestic market, the auto major is going for 94 to 95 per cent of capacity. “So, as the semiconductor issue eases and production increases, those vehicles can be immediately sent out," he said.

Vehicles such as the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, Brezza, Baleno and the XL6 continue to have long waiting periods, extending up to six months. The new SUV Grand Vitara, price of which is yet to be announced, has already received around 52,000 bookings out of which nearly 25,000 are for strong hybrid trim.