the governments drive to weed out black money by demonetizing highvalue currency notes impacted adversely sales of commercial vehicles and twowheelers last month even as major passenger vehicle manufacturers managed to push sales growth on back of strong order backlog for new launches such as maruti suzuki baleno brezza hyundai creta toyota innova fortuner and renault kwid beating apprehensions that the demonetisation drive would affected monthly wholesale numbers the countrys largest car maker maruti suzuki today reported a 142 growth in domestic sales last month selling 126220 units sales for the company were boosted by demand for premium compact baleno and sports utility vehicle brezza which have waiting period of up to 25 weeks the numbers reported however are wholesale dispatches to dealers and do not reflect demand at the retail level maruti suzuki said given that 8590 of cars are sold with the help of financial solutions wholesale volumes remained steady last month market inventory was low at the start of november which translated into the growth in wholesale numbers said a company spokesperson maruti suzuki dealers et spoke to informed that the company has inventory of around 45 days at its dealerships at the moment the company said it usually maintains inventory of 46 weeks at its dealerships while sales of mini cars alto and wagonr increased by 82 during the month volumes in the compact car category swift celerio ritz dzire baleno went up by 108 to 49431 units demand for utility vehicles ertiga s cross brezza gypsy nearly doubled to 17215 units nikunj sanghi director international affairs and global relations federation of automobile dealers association fada explained companies which who have order backlog on their products were able to increase wholesale dispatches at the retail level footfalls are down to a fifth of normal levels for many companies retail sales have declined by 3050 hyundai did not report sales numbers till the time of going to press but wholesale dispatches were reported to be good with inventory of 6570 days at its dealerships japanese auto major toyota kirloskar motor tkm too managed to grow sales by 10 during the month to 11309 units the company registered 6200 bookings for the newly launched fortuner and has an order backlog of around 7000 units for the innova crysta at tata motors and renault sales grew by 22 to 12736 units and 23 to 9604 units driven by the tiago and the kwid respectively n raja director tkm said demonetization has had its impact on our sales as it has effected customer walkins at dealerships order bookings and timely deliveries this will pose as a major challenge in the upcoming days as the customers are still dealing with the effects of demonetization just to help our customers during this phase we have introduced various cashless schemes like 100 on road funding payments through e wallet and pay tm to ensure smooth hassle free buying experiences while the macroeconomic indicators continue to be positive the auto industry