If you are planning to buy a car in the coming days then you will have to wait on the long waitlist which most of the car buyers are facing due to rising demand for the owned mode of transport amid the pandemic.
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Rise In Demand And Long Waitlist
Although that’s not the only reason for this boom as the interest rates on car loans are at an all-time low.
Interestingly this waitlist is not only restricted to the best-selling compact SUV models but it’s also happening for small cars such as Maruti Alto, WagonR.
For popular hatchbacks like Maruti Swift and Hyundai i20, and sedan cars like Hyundai Verna require buyers to be on a waitlist for anywhere in the 1-10 months range, according to the Times of India report.
How Long Is the Waitlist For Maruti Cars?
If we consider the cars under the Maruti tag name, the waitlist is anywhere between the range of 3-4 weeks for models like Swift, Alto and WagonR, but increases to 6-8 weeks for Ertiga.
The carmaker has been functioning at 100% capacity utilization since October amid the Coronavirus spread.
Although, they have undertaken a maintenance shutdown from December 27 to January 3.
The situation will take some time to ease out, despite the assembly lines working at peak of its capacity according to a company dealer based in Delhi.
What About Hyundai Cars?
Apart from Maruti, the country’s second-biggest car manufacturer, Hyundai is also ramping up volumes of its critical models, starting with the Creta.
Hyundai Motor India director (production) Ganesh Mani said, “We have doubled Creta production from 340 units a day to 640 units in the last six months. So, the waitlist came down from 6 months to 2-3 months,”.
Apart from this, Hyundai is also doing “volume augmentation” for Venue and Verna.
Mr. Mani added, “The new i20 is on 2-3 months waitlist and we are augmenting that too. Currently, we are doing 8,000-9,000 a month, but we can go up to 12,000,”.
In addition to that, Hyundai can also tweak the export-domestic mix to get more volumes.
What About Other Brands?
In the case of other brands like Kia, its Seltos and Sonet have a 2-3 month waitlist and along with that, there is an “issue” with engine parts and bumpers.
The CEO (automotive division) at M&M, Vijay Nakra said, “Initially, we had planned for a capacity of about 2,000 vehicles per month and have now ramped up substantially to 3,000 and then 3,500 units in two phases. This would help us bring down the waiting period,”.
This week, Nissan has also announced that they are ramping up production of the Magnite from 2,700 units a month to 4,000 units to bring down the waitlist from 6 months to 2-3 months.
According to Nikunj Sanghi of JS 4Wheel Motor (an M&M dealer), “There is a gap between demand and supply because December retails were good, and companies have taken production shutdowns,”.
So far, the waiting period for the new Mahindra Thar is between 5-10 months.