Maruti Suzuki India , the country’s top carmaker by sales, reported a bigger-than-expected jump in third-quarter profit on Wednesday, buoyed by strong demand for its sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
Indian consumers generally make big-ticket purchases during the festive season, which lasted for a large part for the third quarter. Increased sales of more expensive SUVs, such as ‘Grand Vitara’ and ‘Brezza’, helped boost Maruti’s total sales volumes by 7.6% to about 501,000 units.
The company’s profit after tax for the three months to Dec. 31 rose 33% to ₹31.3 billion. Analysts, on average, expected a profit of ₹29.25 billion, per LSEG data.
Still, this is the carmaker’s slowest profit growth since it reported a drop in profit in the December 2021 quarter, partly due to a dip in sales of small cars, which also includes hatchbacks such as ‘Baleno’.