“In the second half of FY 2027, we believe we are on track to achieve 8 per cent to 10 per cent over last year,” he said in the company’s post earnings call with analysts.
“The good thing is that Diwali is on 8th of November, so I think we will have a good traction, and December anyway is good. So possibly, the headwinds should be overtaken by the tailwinds,” Garg said.
He also said the newly launched Bayon initial waiting period depending on variants is going from 2 months to 6 months and the company is trying to reduce it.
Garg said the industry expecting raw material cost to come down post the US midterm elections, which should eliminate the need for a very substantial price increase.
“if the raw material does not go down, then possibly industry will have to take a very high price increase, which can affect the demand. But if the raw materials come down post the US midterm election, I think that need will be eliminated,” he said.
Garg also said rural demand remains strong, despite El Nino fears.
“I think structurally, India has become much stronger. The network, roads, road infrastructure, I have already been mentioning about 60 per cent of our new network is in the rural areas. We shared that the rural penetration was the highest in the HMIL’s history last quarter, 26.6 per cent. So things are looking very good, and I still believe that rural will continue to outpace urban even going ahead. So as of now, we don’t see there is a much bigger impact of El Niño on the rural demand for cars,” he said.
According to Garg, rural SUV traction is around 68-69 per cent for the company.
“I think that is another reason which gives me a lot of confidence that with now the Bayon coming in, so possibly the rural traction can continue because of that love of SUVs even in the rural areas. So I think that is another tailwind for us,” he said.