Maruti Suzuki extends plant shutdown to May 16

India’s passenger vehicle market leader Maruti Suzuki India, has announced that it is extending the shutdown of its manufacturing facilities till May 16. The shutdown affects the carmaker’s two plants in Haryana and the Suzuki facility in Gujarat.

• Carmaker says maintenance shutdown is in view of current pandemic
• Automaker’s plants in Haryana and Gujarat to remain shut till May 16

The reason for the shutdown and subsequent extension?

Late last month the carmaker had said that it was halting manufacturing at its plants for 9 days from May 1 in a bid to make oxygen available for medical needs.

The company says that the extension of the maintenance shutdown is in view of the current pandemic situation in the country. The Delhi-NCR region is one of the most affected parts of the country. The Suzuki Motor Gujarat plant at Hansalpur will also maintain the same shutdown schedule.

Maruti Suzuki sales numbers

In April 2021, Maruti Suzuki reported total sales of 1,35,879 units, showing a month-on-month (MoM) decline of 7.1 percent when compared to its performance in the previous month – March 2021 – which stood at 1,46,203 units.

The duo of Alto and S-Presso went home to 25,041 buyers and the six pack of the WagonR, Swift, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno, Dzire and Tour S registered sales of 72,318 units. While the Ciaz sedan could clock only 1,567 units, the UV pack of Gypsy, Ertiga, Vitara Brezza, S-Cross and XL6 sold 25,484 units.

With the three plants shutdown for the first half of the month and key car buying states like Maharashtra and Delhi-NCR seeing lockdowns, Maruti numbers as well as total passenger vehicle sales numbers for May 2021 will be hugely impacted.