Car companies open the new year on a strong note, indicating firm consumer demand

NEW DELHI: The auto industry opened the New Year on a strong note with most of the top car companies, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai, and Tata Motors, reporting strong wholesale deliveries to dealerships, in a sign that consumer demand remains healthy.Two-wheeler volumes remained equally robust as companies such as TVS Motor and Royal Enfield had healthy dealer dispatches. Maruti Suzuki, the biggest car seller, however, did not report monthly numbers on the first day of the month, perhaps due to the weekly Sunday holiday. It will announce its sales number on Monday.Mahindra & Mahindra had a 25% growth in domestic sales as it sold 63,510 units against 50,659 units in the same month last year. The company had opened bookings for its new launches XUV7XO and XEV 9S in mid-January. It got 93,689 bookings for a booking value of Rs. 20,500 crore. “Building on the strong momentum of last year's performance, we began the year on a strong note in January,” said Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division, M&M.Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles sales stood at 70,222 units in January, growing by 46% against 48,076 units in January 2025. The company stands comfortably in the second position in the domestic passenger vehicles market, only behind Maruti.Tata’s ⁠Nexon SUV, which was recently upgraded, had wholesales upwards of 23,000 units while its cumulative sales numbers (since launch) crossed the 10 lakh-unit milestone. The Punch mini-SUV also posted its best-ever monthly sales as it sold 19,000 units in the month.Tata said that its new premium SUV, the Sierra, has received “strong traction” and the company is now ramping up production for the model.Hyundai India had domestic sales of 59,107 units in January at a growth of 9.5%. Including exports, its sales grew by 11.5% at 73,137 units, registering its highest-ever in monthly sales, Tarun Garg, the newly-appointed MD & CEO of the company said.Toyota Kirloskar had a 17% growth on total domestic volumes of 30,630 units against 26,178 units in Jan 2025. Including exports, it sold 33,880 units at a growth of 15%. “The year 2026 started on a positive and encouraging note,” said Sabari Manohar, Executive VP (Sales-Service-Used Car Business) at Toyota Kirloskar.Kia India, which recently launched the next-gen version of the Seltos premium SUV, sold 27,603 units, a growth of 10% over 25,025 units. “This performance reinforces our focus on offering well-differentiated, future-ready products across segments,” said Atul Sood, Senior VP (Sales & Marketing) at Kia India.JSW MG reported a 9% growth. The company, which is set to launch the Majestor luxury SUV, sold 4,843 wholesale units in the first month of 2026.TVS Motor recorded monthly sales of 5.1 lakh units at a growth of 29% against 4 lakh units in January 2025. Its two-wheeler sales stood at 4.9 lakh units, a growth of 28% over the 3.9 lakh units sold in Jan 2025. In this, motorcycles registered a growth of 26% as sales increased from 1.7 lakh units to 2.2 lakh units in January this year. Scooters registered a growth of 30% with sales increasing from 1.7 lakh to 2.2 lakh units.