Automakers count on Diwali rush as bookings build

Automakers like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, and Hyundai Motor India ramp up production to meet strong Diwali demand, aiming to convert rising bookings and robust deliveries into festive season sales growth.

Automakers are counting on a strong Diwali buying season to sustain festive demand, with rising bookings at Maruti Suzuki, robust deliveries at Tata Motors and healthy registrations at Hyundai Motor India prompting companies to step up production and improve vehicle availability.

The focus has now shifted to converting the demand pipeline into deliveries during the Dhanteras-to-Diwali period.

Maruti Suzuki's pending bookings have risen from around 200,000 units at the beginning of October to 270,000 after Dussehra, indicating a sizeable order pipeline ahead of the final festive sales push. The country's largest carmaker expects the positive trend to continue, projecting double-digit growth over the entire festive period until Diwali.

"We began October with pending bookings of around 200,000 units, which have increased to 270,000 units after Dussehra. We are making every effort to maximise deliveries and serve our customers," Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer, Maruti Suzuki, said.

The company reported a 35% increase in retail sales between Ganesh Chaturthi and Dussehra, with small-car sales growing around 16% and SUV sales doubling. However, its retail sales during Navratri were almost at the same level as last year, suggesting that the broader festive performance remains uneven.

Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles delivered more than 50,000 vehicles during Navratri, including over 10,000 on Dussehra alone. The company is ramping up production and sharpening logistics to improve the availability of high-demand models and variants ahead of Diwali.

"We are seeing strong festive cheer resulting in robust demand across our multi-powertrain portfolio of cars & SUVs, with improved customer sentiment driving higher showroom walk-ins, enquiries, bookings and deliveries," Amit Kamat, chief commercial officer, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, said.

Hyundai Motor India has also reported encouraging demand, supported by sales during Onam and Ganesh Chaturthi. Registrations during Shradh and Navratri grew 30% year-on-year to nearly 41,000 units, said Managing Director and CEO Tarun Garg. "Considering the pace of bookings, we expect momentum to continue through Dhanteras and Diwali," he said, adding that demand remained healthy across urban and rural markets.

The optimism comes against a mixed industry backdrop. According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), total vehicle retail sales fell 6.52% year-on-year during Navratri to 1.12 million units, although they were 26.76% higher than in 2024. Last year's comparison is complicated by an additional day of Navratri and the GST 2.0 rollout, which brought forward demand.

Passenger vehicle retail sales fell 21.91% year-on-year during Navratri, while two-wheeler sales declined 2.79%. EVs accounted for around 10.5% of total vehicle retail sales during Navratri, FADA said.