Maruti said brisk sales during festivals and in December due to discounts helped the company cut its stock levels to 10-12 days — the lowest in a year. “The whole of this financial year, we have been battling to bring down the stock levels. There have been days when it has risen to 50 days. It’s important for the dealers as it is one of the significant cost components for them apart from manpower,” Srivastava said. Therefore, he said the current stock level gave the firm a lot of comfort.
Srivastava, however, remains cautious in his outlook. “We have to see how the market absorbs the price increase. All the factors responsible for slowing auto sales, including the high cost of ownership, steeper cost of borrowing, etc, remain. It is difficult to predict anything,” he said.
Maruti is likely to halt production of
BS-IV models by the end of this month. It still continues to produce the Brezza diesel.
Owing to the price sensitivity of the segment, two-wheeler makers have a bigger challenge with regard to the switchover.
“There is residual
BS-IV inventory of limited models in some markets across the country on which the company is running a limited ‘2020’ offer. This offer may be supplemented by dealers,” a Hero spokesperson said.
Hero has started sales of BS-VI models and is “aggressively ensuring the availability of BS-VI products across the country,” the spokesperson said. The prices of the BS-VI models are Rs 7,000-8,000 higher than the BS-IV variants.