Festive season drives two-wheeler sales ahead of passenger cars, says FADA President

Singhania also highlighted the proactive measures that dealers ae taking to accumulate stocks to meet the surging demand for sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

Nikunj Sanghi of JS Fourwheel Motors, however, noted, "Availability, specifically on the SUV front and top-end SUV front, is not as good as we hoped it would be. If it improves there, the numbers would be much higher."

Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki  expects the automotive industry to clock one million car sales by Bhai Dooj, the last day of Diwali. This outlook translates to an 18% year-on-year growth since the start of the festive season, which kicked off with Onam in August.

Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki said he was very positive about the next 15-20 days of the festive season that would end with Bhai Dooj. “At least three lakh more cars are expected to be sold in the next 15 days, out of this total number, Maruti would sell around 1.4 lakh cars…For Maruti Suzuki, the highest sales have come from the Brezza, Vitara, Fronx, Baleno and the Swift Dzire (during the festive season),” he told CNBC-TV18.

Srivastava's statement coincides with a 20% growth in India's automotive sector over the past 72 days of the festive season that began on August 17. During this period, over seven lakh cars were sold, with Maruti Suzuki contributing 3.1 lakh to total sales.

Also, according to a separate report for September, the Indian automotive retail sector experienced significant expansion with auto sales witnessing 20% year-on-year (YoY) growth.