new delhi postfestive car sales have not been as bad as expected with pentup demand playing a positive role but long and steady demand in the auto industry will depend on the economy and developments around covid19 vaccine according to a senior official of indias largest car maker maruti suzuki indiathe auto industry was expecting a large decline in consumer interest in terms of bookings and inquiries although there has been a decline it is marginal and certainly not as much as the expectations or the fear that was in the industry maruti suzuki india executive director marketing and sales shashank srivastava told reporters in an interaction on wednesday advt he added that in that sense it is a much more positive scenario postfestival than was earlier anticipated going by the current trends of booking and inquiries and low stock levels at the dealers and manufacturers december should be fine srivastava saidaccording to the federation of automobile dealers associations passenger vehicle retail sales in november witnessed a yearonyear rise of 417 per cent to 291001 units as diwalidhanteras period led to rise in vehicle registrations compared with 279365 units in november 2019when asked about the road ahead srivastava said there has been an element of pentup demand so far we really dont know when will it drain outtherefore he added the fresh demand long and steady demand in the auto industry depends completely on the fundamentals of the economy there is a very high correlation between auto demand and percapita growthhe said it will also depend on the sentiment surrounding the covid19 pandemicon those two factors there is still some sort of uncertainty although we are hearing positive noises on both fronts as well he said those were the main reasons why manufacturers are little apprehensive about giving forward guidance for the next quarter and beyond srivastava added pti published on dec 9 2020 at 0442 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etauto app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app covid19 vaccine maruti suzuki maruti suzuki india auto retail diwalidhanteras shashank srivastava demand auto industry homenewslong steady auto demand depends on economy covid19 situation maruti suzuki