Automakers await festive season

New Delhi: Automakers Honda, Toyota and Maruti Suzuki India are hoping that this festive season will bring some uptick in demand although "great signs" of recovery do not seem to be in the market due to the prevailing negative sentiments.

The companies are banking on festive purchases to lift sales from deep negative declines to somewhat reasonable levels compared to the past five months. "Looking at things which happened in this fiscal, there don't appears any great signs, but definitely festival season will bring some uptick as compared to what we have seen in the last five months," Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) Senior Vice-President and Director (Marketing & Sales) Rajesh Goel said.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations' (FADA) annual auto retail conclave. Goel said though festival season has already started in the country's southern and western regions, it has remained subdued so far on account of various reasons, including more-than-expected rains in some parts.

"All in all, I believe that festival season would bring some uptick but by how much, that we will have to wait and watch," he added. Goel said even if some reversal has to happen in terms of sales, sentiment is not something that can be reversed so quickly. "So, this year, it appears to be difficult to get into a boom cycle and thus, it will be a slighter longer period," he added.