With 2022 coming to an end, Indian automakers have started raining discounts to clear stocks before the year ends. These year-end discounts are a usual industry practice and are mostly aimed at slow-moving or entry-level vehicles. They also hope that these discounts will push sales and improve their retail sales figure.
Major car manufacturers — Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Hyundai, Mahindra, Skoda, Volkswagen and Jeep — are offering lucrative deals on their select models. Moreover, with some carmakers having already announced a price hike next month, many buyers are also in the queue for a bargain. In addition to this, the drop in demand in certain car segments has also started to impact automakers.
Most carmakers are offering discounts of up to 5 percent — up to Rs 2.5 lakh — on select models in December 2022. However, some models — Mahindra Scorpio-N, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, Hyundai Creta and Mahindra XUV700 — have long waiting periods and are beyond the scope of any discount.
India’s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki, which is going to raise the prices of its cars in January, has also increased cash discounts, compared to the previous month, on Alto, S-Presso, Dzire and Eeco. The company is also providing lucrative deals on its premium offerings like the Ciaz, Baleno and Ignis in December. However, Maruti has lowered discounts on the new WagonR and Celerio. There are no discounts on the Brezza and Ertiga.
Tata Motors, which has also announced its intention to hike in prices across its passenger vehicle range from January, is offering cash discounts and exchange benefits. The homegrown automaker is offering discounts on its sports utility vehicles (SUVs) Safari and Harrier and other models like Tiago and Tigor.
Mahindra & Mahindra, on the other hand, is offering discounts of up to Rs 1 lakh on the XUV300, Bolero Neo, BoleroIt and on few variants of the Thar. Even Hyundai is offering benefits up to Rs 63,000 on the Grand i10 Nios, Aura and i20.
Jeep’s three-row SUV Meridian is offered with the highest year-end discounts of up to Rs 2.5 lakh. The Jeep Meridian, which was launched in May this year, is a three-row SUV based on the Compass. The company is also offering up to Rs 1.5 lakh off on its entry-level SUV Compass.
Skoda is offering benefits worth up to Rs 1.25 lakh on its Creta rival SUV, Kushaq. Interestingly, this SUV had also scored a five-star rating under Global NCAP’s new protocols.
Volkswagen Taigun, which is also based on the same architecture, gets up to Rs 1 lakh off. Taigun, similar to Skoda Kushaq, also secured a five-star rating in Global NCAP's updated safety test.
Honda is offering benefits of up to Rs 75,000 on its soon-to-be-axed WR-V crossover and City (Gen 5) Sedan. However, only select variants of Honda City are eligible for benefits. Interestingly, Honda City’s diesel variant is also likely to discontinue soon because of the upcoming RDE norms.
