The Indian auto market is currently engulfed with a number of challenges that have majorly affected the demand pattern resulting to curtailment in the automotive production. The recently cropped constraints include the rising petrol prices that have plunged down the demand for the petrol powered cars and the proposed hike in excise duty, which will have a direct impact on the final prices of the vehicles.
Automakers in the country, at this juncture, are compelled to drastically decline the production of the petrol driven cars. While Toyota Kirloskar Motor has halted the production of all its petrol powered models, Fiat Motors is aiming to shut down the manufacturing plants for some scheduled days in a month.
Even Tata Motors has announced that the production of its commercial vehicles at the plant in Pune will be called off for three days this week. Following the trajectory is the country’s leading automaker, Maruti Suzuki India, which has revealed that the plants will be shut down completely in the next week for annual maintenance.
Mr. Shekar Vishwanathan, Deputy Managing Director - Commercial, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, was quoted as saying, "We are having some amount of inventory for our petrol cars and it has gone up to over 30 days. To control the stock from piling up further, we have stopped production of our entire range of petrol cars from June 16."
He confirmed that the sales of the diesel vehicles are stable but the waiting period is however, declining.
Mr. Rajeev Kapoor, President and CEO of Fiat India commented that the production will be driven through continuous monitoring of the demand and inventory situation. Even Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki confirmed to halt the production of some of its models.
