- Tax cuts boost Maruti Suzuki's December small car sales by 50%
- Maruti has over month-long backlog for most affordable models - exec
- Utility vehicles power Tata Motors and Mahindra's sales
- Hyundai India's dispatches little changed
Jan 1 (Reuters) - India's leading carmakers reported a strong rise in December sales to dealers on Thursday, with tax cuts from earlier in the year fuelling demand into the final month of 2025.
In September, India cut goods and services tax on small cars to 18% from 28% and on sports utility vehicles with large engine capacities to 40% from about 50%, in a bid to spur consumer spending and bolster growth amid steep U.S. tariffs.
This benefitted market leader Maruti Suzuki's small car portfolio, its biggest segment, with sales rising 50% to 92,929 units, the highest since January 2025.
Maruti's total sales to domestic dealers jumped 37% to a record 178,646 units.
The company, India's top carmaker by sales, has an order backlog of one and a half months for its most affordable models, Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer for marketing and sales told reporters.
The company would soon "take a call" on whether it wants to revise prices of small cars, Banerjee said.
Peer Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles reported a 13% rise in domestic sales, with models such as the Nexon and Punch utility vehicles and the Tiago small car driving growth.
Tata expects sales growth to pick up in coming months as deliveries of newly launched models, like the Sierra SUV, commence.
Earlier in the day, Mahindra & Mahindra - which has a car portfolio comprised entirely of SUVs - said its monthly sales grew 23% in December.
Its sales growth of 18% so far in fiscal year 2026 is among the fastest in the Indian car market, and has helped the Scorpio manufacturer leapfrog Hyundai India and Tata to the no. 2 spot in the current financial year.
Hyundai's monthly sales, on the other hand, grew only 0.5% in December.
Reporting by Meenakshi Maidas and Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala
Source: Reuters