The Maruti Suzuki Jimny took a big leap in the sales department in July 2024; After hovering below 500 units since January 2024, the growth is quite encouraging.
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) launched the Jimny in the Indian market last year and after a few initial months of hype, the sales started to decline and there was no going back. The recovery was slow despite offering massive discounts in December 2023, as it managed to bag only 730 units. Fast forward to July 2024, the discounts were reintroduced to revive the Jimny nameplate and this time, Maruti Suzuki hit the jackpot as the sales went up to 2,429 units. This accounts for a 405% month-on-month growth.
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Maruti Jimny Makes A Comeback: The Journey
Maruti Jimny started rolling on the Indian roads in June 2023, and the booking backlog was cleared in the initial months. As per the company, there were more than 30,000 bookings before the official launch in June last year. This is a good number to boast about, however, only a fraction of this was translated into sales. This means the cancellation of bookings was huge and so was the disappointment amongst prospective buyers after the price announcement.
Maruti Jimny Makes A Comeback: The not-so-encouraging Sales Numbers
Once the order backlog was cleared, the graph went down and to clear the piled-up inventory, official discounts of over Rs. 2 lakh were introduced in the name of Jimny ‘Thunder Edition’. Not much changed and the sales plummeted to a new low of 163 units in January 2024. The months of February, March, April and May 2024 went by with sales ranging around 250-300 units. This was the time when discounts of around Rs. 50,000- Rs. 1,00,000 were offered by Maruti Suzuki and dealers were offering some extra cash benefits for the unsold 2023 inventory.
| Maruti Jimny monthly sales | units sold |
|---|---|
| December 2023 | 730 |
| January 2024 | 163 |
| February 2024 | 322 |
| March 2024 | 318 |
| April 2024 | 257 |
| May 2024 | 274 |
| June 2024 | 481 |
| Julu 2024 | 2,429 |
Maruti Jimny Makes A Comeback: The Turning Point- July 2024
In July 2024, Maruti Suzuki brought back the discounts on Jimny and this time around, Rs. 1.8 lakh cash discount was introduced along with Rs. 1.5 lakh extra benefits if the customer opts for Maruti Suzuki Smart Finance (MSSF). This accounts for an effective discount of Rs. 3.3 lakh for the Alpha variant and Rs. 2.75 lakh for the Zeta variant. Thanks to these discounts, the Jimny was now an enticing package and hence, customers who were sitting on the fence, took the plunge. The result is the homegrown carmaker selling 2,429 units of the Jimny in July 2024, registering a massive 405% month-on-month growth.
Maruti Jimny Makes A Comeback: How?
The reason for these improved sales figures is quite obvious. The discounts have offset the effect of the steep pricing by Maruti Suzuki and at an effective reduced sticker cost, customers found the off-road SUV worth buying. This also proves that the Jimny is a competent product and the pricing played the spoilsport. Maruti’s attempt to revive Jimny seems to be working, but for how long will these discounts continue? only time will answer.
Maruti Jimny Makes A Comeback: Will the Momentum Continue
With the debut of Mahindra Thar Roxx 5-Door, Jimny will find it hard to maintain the pace. While the Thar 5-Door can’t be attributed as Jimny’s direct rival, its positioning in the same price bracket as well as the lifestyle SUV segment, will make a dent in the sales. This also depends on the discounts. What we can clearly see is that the Jimny won’t sell without discounts now as the customers won’t find the value in its original sticker cost or combined with some extra benefits.
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Introducing discounts now and then has changed the customer’s perception and its worth will now be calculated based on the effective price after the highest discounts. These offers can only fuel Jimny’s sales. Will the company reduce the price of Jimny? No, it’s highly unlikely but they will continue to offer discounts until they believe that the Jimny is a dead horse in India. We are sure that Maruti has not given up on Jimny and it’s too early for them to come to a conclusion as it is merely a year-old product. We have seen Maruti Suzuki pulling their worst-performing nameplates for a long time and it makes sense as the investments have already been written off in the finance books, so why not utilize its potential for as long as possible?