homeauto NewsSemiconductor availability much better now, says Mahindra as it reports highest quarterly SUV sales
Semiconductor availability much better now, says Mahindra as it reports highest quarterly SUV sales
The semiconductor situation now is very positive, said Rajesh Jejurikar, ED - Auto and Farm Sectors at Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) in an interview with CNBC-TV18.
The auto industry has been struggling with the shortage of semiconductors for over a year and that has hampered the supply-side of businesses. Finally, with the world recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and global economies opening up, the problem seems to be coming to an end.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Rajesh Jejurikar, ED - Auto and Farm Sectors at Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) said that the situation is now "very positive".
“We did have a very difficult supply side situation till December last year. We were affected worse than others in the semiconductor situation, we had a high dependence on Malaysia for the chips. So we had a disruption. We have got out of all of that. Semiconductor situation is very positive and January of the current calendar year onward, we're seeing the strong conversion of that into actual sales production,” he said.
The auto sales for June are out and passenger vehicle manufacturers like M&M have reported a very strong rise in sales due to the success of new launches like XUV 700, Thar, and Bolero.
Also Read: Overdrive: Test drive of M&M’s Scorpio N
“We have seen a very good run up and the SUV volumes, in particular, have been on very strong growth. On the SUV side, we had our highest ever quarter sales. We sold over 75,000 SUVs in quarter one which was a growth of about 70 percent. That is driven on the back of very strong demand coming out of new launches,” he said.
These strong SUV (sport utility vehicle) sales are without new Scorpio bookings and the company doesn’t expect any significant cannibalization of other SUVs by the new Scorpio.
In terms of bookings, he mentioned, “We are getting 9,000 new bookings every month, where now the customer is very clear that the waiting period is close to two years. There are customers who are booking today and getting a waiting period or getting a delivery time in 2024. But we're still getting 9,000 new customers every month. So that tells us that the product has hit a sweet spot."
For the auto major, the first quarter of this fiscal year had turned out to be much better than expected for tractors. The quarter growth for the tractor business was in the region of 18 percent, he said.
“We are seeing good monsoon, they have been a little delayed. And delayed monsoon does have some slowdown in buying. However, they have caught up very well in July. So overall, we remain cautiously optimistic on the tractor side,” he added.
For the entire discussion, watch the accompanying video
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