Demand for pre-owned cars is projected to grow at a CAGR of 13% by 2026-27: Shashank Srivastava of Maruti Suzuki

The pandemic has truly led to a slew of changes in the way consumers think and purchase any product or service. As per Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki, ever since the pandemic happened, the used car space is becoming more and more important in the car market.

“During the pandemic, a vast chunk of the audience began moving away from public transport and shared mobility options towards personal mobility. There was a huge jump in demand for used cars since not everybody could afford to purchase a new car - which is why people started exploring buying used cars as well,” he said.

Additionally, Srivastava also stated that during the period, the people who had personal cars held them for a longer period and didn’t upgrade, because of which the number of used cars available for sale in the market reduced.

“When the demand for used cars increased, the actual sales didn’t go up,” said Srivastava.

Furthermore, he also went on to state that in the post-pandemic world too, the demand for used cars continues to grow and the supply for the same is also growing and becoming better.

“The demand for the used-car market is projected to grow to 1.7x of the new car business in 2026-27 at a CAGR of approximately 13%. By the end of 2027, the used car market would constitute somewhere between 7.5-7.7 million units, up from the current year’s 5.3 million units,” Srivastava said.

He then went on to add, “Coupled with the big growth projections for the used car market, the organised car market is also supposed to grow from the current level, which is 20% of the used car market, and reach approximately 30% in 2026-27.”

Thus, in the views of Srivastava, there is ample amount of scope for Maruti Suzuki’s TrueValue - which is a pre-owned cars (POC) business - as it has a 45% market share with over 46 lakh strong customer base in the used car market.

He also said that the brand’s core strengths like 376-quality checkpoints, verified car history, AI-based pricing engine, hassle-free and quick documentation process along with three free services and one year warranty, are playing a big role in making customers happy.

“Last year, our POC business summed up to 3 lakh units, but this year we are hoping to touch 4.5 lakh units,” he added.

As a result, the main target at hand for the automobile brand is to ensure that consumers are aware of the brand- ‘TrueValue’, which is also the primary objective behind the new #SirfTrueValuePe brand campaign, Srivastava said.

Maruti Suzuki TrueValue campaign link

When asked as to what the overall communication line of the brand campaign would be, Srivastava replied that the ad campaign consisting of four light-hearted films will run on the lines of ‘how selling your old or used cars on TrueValue would be the best decision you would make for your car sale’.

He also stated that the four ad films will be discussing four different subjects- ‘right and fair prices’, ‘free home evaluation’, ‘on-time payment’ and ‘ease of documentation/transfer of RC’ - which constitute the USP of Maruti Suzuki’s TrueValue.

Building on the two-decade-long legacy of trust and reliability, Maruti Suzuki’s new brand campaign for TrueValue features Rajkumar Rao, who is also the brand ambassador, and shows how he ultimately chooses it for selling his used car after carefully considering all the other available options in the market.

Commenting on the media mix of the latest ad campaign, Srivastava stated that Maruti Suzuki has allocated an ad budget of Rs 24 crore for the latest ad campaign and that the 360-degree campaign would be largely focussing on TV and OTT.

“We will be spending (approximately) Rs 4 crore on regional mediums, largely Print and nearly Rs 15 crore on a mix of both TV and OTT. This will be followed by Digital mediums where we will be allocating nearly 15% of the ad budget, along with Out-Of-Home billboards,” highlighted Srivastava.

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