Record Sales, Smaller Profit: Maruti Suzuki Q2 Profit Falls 26% as Costs Outrun Revenue

Maruti Suzuki sold more cars than ever in a quarter, and still made less money. India's largest carmaker reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,466.1 crore for the July to September 2026 quarter, down 26.36 per cent from Rs 3,349 crore in the same quarter last year, even as revenue from operations rose to Rs 53,355.5 crore from Rs 42,344.2 crore. The contrast between record sales and falling profit is the story of the quarter: demand held up, but costs rose faster.

The company sold 696,654 vehicles in the quarter, up 26.5 per cent year-on-year, its highest-ever quarterly volume. Small-car sales rose 35.9 per cent and SUV sales rose 68.2 per cent, lifting Maruti's domestic passenger-vehicle market share by 2.2 percentage points to 40.8 per cent. Festive-season demand for compact cars was a clear driver, and the company also reported record half-year sales of 1,379,378 vehicles for April to September.

Why profit fell while sales rose

Costs explain the gap. Total expenses climbed to Rs 50,619 crore from Rs 39,018.4 crore a year earlier, and the cost of materials consumed jumped to Rs 37,488.5 crore from Rs 25,324.2 crore. The company attributed the pressure to higher commodity prices linked to the West Asia conflict, alongside adverse foreign-exchange movement and lower non-operating income from mark-to-market losses on invested surplus. Operating profit fell to Rs 2,803.7 crore from Rs 3,382 crore.

On a standalone basis — the parent company alone, excluding subsidiaries and joint ventures — net profit was Rs 2,414.9 crore, down about 27 per cent year-on-year, on total revenue from operations of Rs 53,340.2 crore. The consolidated figure, which includes the wider group, is the headline used here, and the two bases should not be mixed. Either way, the direction is the same: revenue up by about a quarter, profit down by about a quarter.

Price rises, and what buyers felt

Maruti has already been passing some costs on. In September it raised prices of select models by up to Rs 20,000, its third increase since May, according to reporting of the results. Even so, higher costs continued to outweigh the price rises in the quarter. About two lakh customer bookings were pending at the end of September, according to reporting of the results, suggesting demand was not the constraint — supply and cost were.

What happens next

The question for the second half of the year is whether commodity costs ease or whether further price rises follow. Analysts cited in reporting expect sales growth to moderate, partly because the year-ago base was boosted by tax cuts. For buyers, the practical implication is that Maruti's most popular models remain in strong demand, but the pricing pressure that squeezed the company's margins in this quarter has not yet gone away. Information only, not financial or investment advice. Figures as reported on 27 October 2026.