Bright start to Fiscal Year 27 for carmakers

Carmakers began the new fiscal on a strong note, with an estimated 4.5 lakh units of passenger vehicles sold in April in the domestic market, up 27 per cent, on the back of record sales by firms, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Kia.

The industry continued to benefit from the tailwinds of GST 2.0 carried forward from the second half of last fiscal, along with repo rate cut and income tax benefit, Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, Partho Banerjee said.

Passenger vehicle (PV) sales in the domestic market were 3.54 lakh units in April last year. Maruti Suzuki India posted a record domestic sales of 1,91,122 units in April compared to 1,42,053 units in the year-ago month. Its previous highest domestic sales were in December 2025 at 1,82,165 units.

“We are starting this year with a big bang. Small cars have contributed significantly to this growth,” Banerjee told PTI.

The company’s small cars, comprising Alto, S-Presso, Celerio and WagonR, grew 74.4 per cent, he said, adding it has dispelled the doubts that people had over the future of small cars. He, however, said any hike in petrol prices could have an impact on demand.

Addressing a virtual conference, Banerjee said the overall PV industry “is expected to be around 4.45 lakh to 4.5 lakhs in April this year and last year, the industry volume (for the same month) was 3.54 lakh”. Elaborating on the growth drivers, he said, “The three tailwinds of GST 2.0, the income tax relief and the reduction in the repo rates are still going on”.

Banerjee said that for Maruti Suzuki, there is a total of 1.65 lakh pending bookings, with the waiting period for its small cars extending to a month, and the company is gradually ramping up production to meet the rising demand.

Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd said its sales in the domestic market stood at 59,000 units last month against 45,199 units in the year-ago period, a growth of 30.5 per cent.

Homegrown Mahindra & Mahindra reported domestic passenger vehicle sales of 56,331 units compared to 52,330 units in April 2025, up 8 per cent, with its CEO, Automotive Division, Nalinikanth Gollagunta, stating that the company has started the new fiscal year 2026-27 “on a positive note in April”.

Benefiting from the policy support, Hyundai Motor India Ltd reported a 17 per cent year-on-year growth in domestic sales to 51,902 units in April 2026.

It was the company’s highest ever for the month of April since its inception.

“We have opened the new financial year on a strong note, carrying forward the momentum built in recent months into April 2026,” Hyundai Motor India Ltd MD and CEO Tarun Garg said.

Similarly, Kia India also reported a 16 per cent growth in wholesales to 27,286 units in April 2026 compared to 23,623 units sold in the same month last year. It was the highest-ever sales in April.

“Our highest-ever April performance builds on the steady growth we have seen over the past several months.