Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q1 FY23 Earnings Conference Call of Maruti Suzuki India Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pranav Ambaprasad. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Aman. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon once again. May I introduce you to the management team from Maruti Suzuki. Today, we have with us our CFO, Mr. Ajay Seth. From corporate, we have Executive Director, Corporate Planning and Government Affairs, Mr. Rahul Bharti, General Manager, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations, Mr. Nikhil Vyas. From finance, we have Executive Director, Mr. Pradeep Garg, Executive Vice President, Mr. Sanjay Mathur, and Vice President, Mr. Dinesh Gandhi. The call will begin with a brief statement on the performance and outlook of our business by Mr. Seth. After which, we'll be happy to receive your questions. May I remind you of the safe harbor. We may be making some forward-looking statements that have to be understood in conjunction with the uncertainty and the risks that the company faces.
I also like to inform you that the call is being recorded, and the audio recording, and the transcript will be available at our website. May you please note that in case of any inadvertent error during this live audio call, a transcript will be provided with the corrected information. I would now like to invite our CFO, Mr. Seth. Over to you, sir.
Thanks, Pranav. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Hope you and your families are healthy and safe. Let me start with some business highlights. Since long our investors, analysts, and well-wishers were eagerly awaiting on our action on new product launches, especially in the SUV space. We are happy to inform that we have started launching one product after the other. We have broken all earlier barriers by offering products with new age features and cutting-edge technologies. We thank all our investors and analysts for keeping their trust in us, and I am sure you would be happy to see our comeback with products which are proving to be blockbusters from day one. The all-new Brezza, India's most loved compact SUV, help in strengthening our SUV offerings with around 70,000 bookings, a short span of time. Customer response for all-new Brezza is overwhelming.
Introduction of technologically advanced features such as electric sunroof, heads-up display, telematics, 360-degree camera, ESP, hill hold assist, among others, is helping in improving customer convenience and safety in these products. The company, with its new generation, highly efficient K-Series engines and electrification technologies, is working towards lowering the CO2 emission for its fleet. These new products come with improved energy efficiencies that can help in both lowering the CO2 emissions as well as lowering the running cost. Relevance of fuel efficiency improvement is more pronounced during the ongoing period of elevated fuel prices. One of our most spectacular model, Grand Vitara, is a new SUV model conceptualized, designed, and developed by Suzuki, and will be produced at Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited. In addition to sales in India, the model is also planned to be exported to markets outside India.
It has multiple variants with different powertrain options, such as the Suzuki AllGrip Select with off-roading technology, the intelligent electric hybrid powertrain, which delivers almost 28 kilometers per liter, and the smart hybrid powertrain version. Going forward, the company will strive to further strengthen its SUV portfolio to dominate the SUV segment just like all other segments. During the quarter, the company finalized the land site for new manufacturing plant in Haryana, an 800-acre site at IMT Kharkoda. The first plant with a manufacturing capacity of 250,000 vehicles per annum is expected to be commissioned within the year 2025. In the first phase, the investment would be over INR 11,000 crores. The site will have space for capacity expansion to include more manufacturing plants in the future.
Coming to export markets, thanks to our parent company, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan, we have been able to leverage their vast global distribution network to significantly enhance our exports. With this, we recorded our highest-ever quarterly exports of 69,437 vehicles in quarter one of this financial year. Reinforcing its commitment to maximize the use of renewable energy in operations, the company has set up a 20-megawatt solar power plant at its Manesar facility. Coming to the business environment, the electronic component shortages are still limiting our production volumes. In this quarter, the company could not produce 51,000 vehicles. Limited visibility on availability of electronic components is a challenge in planning our productions. Our supply chain, engineering, production and sales teams are working towards maximizing the production volume from available semiconductors. The supply situation of electronic components continues to remain unpredictable.
Input cost pressure led by the increase in commodity prices was another challenge for the company. The company has always strived to provide mobility to masses and continue to work on focused cost reduction efforts to limit the impact of commodity inflation on selling prices. Coming to financial results, performance in Q1 of FY 2021-22 was affected by COVID-related shutdown and disruptions. Hence, the comparison of Q1 of last year with this year is not on a like-to-like basis. The company sold a total of 467,931 vehicles during the quarter. Sales in the domestic market stood at 398,494 units. Exports were at 69,437 units, the highest ever in any quarter.
In the same period previous year, the company sold a total of 353,614 units, including sales of 308,035 units in domestic market and 45,519 units in export market. During the quarter, the company registered net sales of INR 252,863 million, as against INR 167,970 million in quarter one of previous year. The operating profit in quarter one of this year stood at INR 12,607 million. During the same period previous year, the operating profit was INR 779 million.
The net profit for the quarter stood at INR 10,128 million against INR 4,408 million in quarter one of previous year. We are now ready to take your questions, feedback, and any other observations that you may have. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Kapil Singh from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, sir. First I wanted to check on the cost side, how much cost inflation did we see in 1Q FY23, and how much of it we were able to pass on? Also, looking into the second quarter, how much drop in raw material to sales are you looking at, given the drop in commodities that we have seen? If you could add some perspective there as well in terms of metals and other elements like energy costs and margin costs, etc.
Okay, Kapil, the cost inflation on commodities comes with a quarter lag, so this quarter was affected because the effective prices were for the fourth quarter of last year, which had to be indexed and increases to be given to the vendors. We had an impact on commodities all across, including steel and precious metals. The impact was to the extent of about a little less than 2%. We were able to partially offset this impact with the price increase that we did. There was also some incremental impact of the sales promotion costs being higher sequentially compared to fourth quarter in this quarter. Effectively, that broadly is the reason for the drop in operating margins that you see sequentially between quarter four and quarter one.
Moving forward, we are hopeful of commodity prices cooling. It is difficult to give any fixed guidance at this point in time because it'll, you know, these situations vary. We have more clarity on quarter two because quarter two rates are fixed to quarter one. We definitely see prices across all commodities, including steel and other metals being low, much lower than what they were in quarter one of this year, as you've seen in the results.
Okay. Thanks, sir. Secondly, just wanted to check on the order book. If you could give the latest order book update and how much was the net order inflow for the quarter. Also there were some news reports regarding, you know, order inflows for Grand Vitara. If you can share an update there, that what kind of order inflow we have seen for that and how is the response to hybrid variants within that.
Kapil uh.
Also the retail sales, sir.
Sorry?
Also the retail sales for the quarter, please.
Retail sales are broadly in line with wholesales, slightly short. On the order book, the pending orders as of now are about INR 3.5 lakh. A large, a good number has come from new models. As Shashank mentioned in his opening remarks, we've got an excellent response to the Grand Vitara with about 70,000 bookings.
A good number of these bookings are for the top variant. What was your other question?
For Grand Vitara also if you could share in terms of, you know, how are the bookings and how is the response to the hybrid variant within those mix of bookings you're getting?
Okay. Grand Vitara we have a good order of about 20,000 or so. For the Brezza, the all-new Brezza, we have about 70,000. In the Grand Vitara, the strong hybrid which we have described aptly as intelligent electric hybrid, that has got between 45%-50% of the bookings. That's a very positive sign. We just hope that we'll be able to service these orders fast.
Okay. Thank you. Mr. Rahul Bharti, I also wanted to check, you know, we had S-Cross in the portfolio earlier, which was a fairly strong model. It did not live up to expectations in terms of volumes. Any learnings that are there from there which we are employing now as we are ramping up the SUV portfolio?
See, the S-Cross was a crossover. It was a new concept, so it was between a sedan and an SUV. But if we are to see anything from the Grand Vitara based on the experts and the journalists, the auto experts at the launch, almost unanimously there has been a very strong positive reaction on it. I'm yet to hear a single remark about any lacuna or weakness in the model. In terms of technologies, it is very strong. Almost everything that we can think of is there. There's a giant panoramic sunroof. All features like heads-up display, ESP, hill hold assist, 360-degree camera, and it has a muscular stance, large body, all dimensions, length, width, height, all the dimensions are good. The power is.
There are two versions, the AllGrip technology which is all-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, and there is a strong hybrid version which has very high fuel efficiency, over 27.97 kilometers per liter. Everything points towards a very strong pull from the market.
Thank you. Wish you all the best for that.
Thank you.
Have a good evening.
Thank you. Next question from Gunjan Prithyani from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my questions. Just two questions. Firstly, the explanation on the margin. You mentioned about 200 basis points impact of commodity. Against that we had offsets available from price hike, which is, you know, almost 1.3% which we had announced, and then we had yen depreciation which benefited as well. You know, in that context, just the 1% decline that is there in the gross margin seems a bit steep. If you could just give us more color, you know, maybe help us quantify, you know, what were the promotional spends, or did we really see any yen depreciation benefit in this quarter? You know, some quantifying around that will help us.
As I mentioned earlier, that there was this commodity impact, which was partially offset by selling price increase and sales promotion cost was slightly higher from Q4 to Q1. The net impact between the selling price increase and the material cost was still about 1.2% as you see in the numbers. Besides that, there was an increase in the employee cost, because usually in the first quarter you will always see that there is a regular impact of salary increases, et cetera, that are built in, retirement benefits and salary increases which are built in, which was about 0.6%. If you, these are two major factors for the movement of operating profit between quarter four of last year and quarter one of this year.
Anything to quantify on yen depreciation? Was there any meaningful benefit in this quarter?
There was a benefit. Though not very big because the benefit comes with a quarter lag. As I mentioned to you that the indirect imports are the larger piece. Direct is a small, much smaller piece. The rates of quarter four would have applied in quarter one. We will see a much larger impact as we move forward because now we will have the full benefit of the current exchange rates in the coming quarters.
Okay. That yen benefit will flow through in second quarter. Okay, got it. The second question was on the Grand Vitara again now. You know, clearly it's good to see that response to the strong hybrid. You know, just trying to get your thought process. You know, there is about 45%-50% diesel share in this category. How are we, you know, thinking about competing with this, with the diesel portfolio there, given, you know, hybrid still suffers from higher taxation. You know, maybe some thoughts how we are positioning to compete with the diesel share within that midsize UV segment.
The hybrid taxation is a shade lower than the diesel taxation in that segment. To that extent it is not a disadvantage. Secondly, customers are yet to see a very powerful product in efficient gasoline in that segment. I may also remind you that in the entry SUV segment, the diesel to gasoline ratio used to be 80/20 a few years ago. After the entry of Brezza, it reversed from 80/20 to 20/80, and now even that 20% diesel has now become 18.3% diesel. If customers get a good product, they'll lap it up.
Okay. Got it. Can you share the discounts for the quarter? This is the last one from me.
Discounts this quarter were at INR 12,750. Quarter four was lower at INR 11,130.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question is from Raghunandhan N. L. from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Couple of questions. Firstly, on Grand Vitara, what are your thoughts on the acceptable pricing gap between that of a mild hybrid and strong hybrid? Again, you know, like, trying to understand, you know, at what kind of price gap, you know, customers will accept a strong hybrid as a substitute to diesel.
The pricing is still not decided. Of course, we, like yourself, we also have this curiosity, and we are studying the market. We will at an appropriate time before sales, we will announce the pricing also. On a larger view, if India has to decarbonize, there's a major advantage with strong hybrids because they do a good fraction of the job of an EV and are many times more scalable. We can attack decarbonization in a large way. It becomes scalable if we employ such technologies. I think it's a matter of time. Customers will see the benefit and be willing to pay more for it.
Thank you, sir. Mr. Ajay Seth, if you can talk about what would be the current yen exposure. Would my understanding be correct that yen payables would be a high single digit share as a percentage of revenue?
Yen exposure has significantly come down compared to earlier years because the yen exposure is only in case of the component imports that we have from overseas. Royalty is now, as you know, all paid in rupee and not exposed to a currency risk. Our total exposure for that import is close to about 3% of our net sales, which is significantly small compared to what it used to be earlier.
Indirect exposure, sir?
Indirect exposure would be slightly large. That will be in the vicinity of about. Just give me a minute. That'll be close to about JPY 85 billion.
Got it, sir. Just a clarification on what you said on the royalty side. I mean, the earlier commentary I remember was 50/50 share of rupee and yen royalty. How is it currently, sir?
No, no. Now we have totally attained total rupee exposure, the new formula totally.
Thank you, sir. Just last question. On the other income side, there was the impact of the MTM losses. I mean, just trying to understand if we have to look at future quarters, broadly, what could be the run rate?
No, the mark to market impact came this quarter because of a steep increase in the interest rates. We had, to some extent, corrected ourselves by taking a lower tenure papers, but we still were hit because the interest rate increase was almost 150 basis points, and that impacted the yields. We are hopeful. Markets have already corrected to a large extent and built in the increases that are expected. If there is no surprise other than this, then we should see a steady income during the remaining period. Yes, if there is any surprise from a bank by further increasing the rate than what is being expected on the market, then there could possibly be some more mark to market impact.
At this point in time, we don't think that there should be any surprise by the central bank.
Thank you, sir. Very helpful. That's all from my side.
Thank you. Next question is from Pramod Kumar from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks a lot for the opportunity, sir. My first question pertains to the CNG and the hybrid tech side. So if you can just help us understand how is the demand for CNG models evolved over the last few weeks or actually let's say over two months because CNG prices have moved quite sharply and the price gap between petrol and CNG has narrowed as well. If you can just help us understand the way you look at the booking run rate or the booking velocity for CNG, has there been any letup at all from the customer side?
See, CNG is currently 20% of our sales. We are looking at it as a larger decarbonization journey.
Right.
This situation has arisen from the war. These short-term phenomena, I mean, will not matter in the long term. We have products in the pipeline also. In the long term, this should not matter.
Okay. No, well, the reason why I was asking that, Mr. Rahul Bharti, was that the customers, in terms of behavior, are far more sensitive towards OpEx. As the OpEx benefit of CNG kind of reduces, I'm just curious to understand, is there any change in the booking pattern? That's about it. I'm just going back to the previous episode of diesel versus gasoline between FY 2011, 2013, and in a way extending that to the hybrid bit. Wanted to understand, given the fuel economy delta, what is kind of driving a lot of customers to prefer the strong hybrid technology? Given the initial booking numbers what you're talking about.
I was just trying to get the sensitivity around the OpEx there.
Strong, interestingly, a good percentage of the bookings have come in the strong hybrid category, almost 45% plus kind of bookings. I think it is not just OpEx. Customers are warming up to a new, I mean, they are attracted to a new technology, and they want to embrace it fast. There is some sensitivity about lower carbon emissions also. This is very positive. Along the way, when customers actually see the car, and in the display it clearly explains how the battery plus motor combination is providing the power to the wheel, or the engine is providing power to the wheel. The more they use it, the more we believe there would be traction in this segment.
And, uh-
OpEx, of course, does matter. I think over the long term, we will also strive to deliver better on both OpEx and CapEx for the customers.
Mr. Rahul Bharti, extending that hybrid bit, is it fair to assume that Grand Vitara is just the start of the kind of taking strong hybrid to the masses, and one should expect more of this technology even on the existing models and not necessarily restricted only to new launches, the premium category?
We would, depending upon market response, we would like to maximize this to the extent possible.
Okay, fair enough. Final question on the Haryana CapEx. Just curious, given that for the last several years now, Suzuki has been kind of doing the heavy lift on CapEx for new incremental capacity. Just want to understand the reason or the thought process for doing the Haryana CapEx on our books. Was there no discussion with Suzuki or offer from Suzuki to do the CapEx on that front as well, on their books? Just want to understand the thought process there.
Pramod, the way we think about running our operations is slightly different from what the narrative goes on. But it's a very virtual description. We work in the real world where we have to operate factories, we have to look at operations, logistics, what suits us in terms of real factories, real dispatches, et cetera. It made all sense to do it in Haryana, so we did it in Haryana.
No, no, Rahul-san, the question was, why is the CapEx being incurred by Maruti and not by Suzuki? Because Suzuki-
Exactly. That is what I am saying.
Suzuki could have easily buy.
Our considerations are real. In the real world, they are more about running factories with good operational efficiencies, with logistics, with proximity to our current manufacturing ecosystem, including the supply chain. It is not so much about, you know, placing it in one company's books or the other company's. Haryana suited us. That's in the overall scheme of things. That's why we decided to locate it in Haryana. If it is in Haryana, it has to be on Maruti's books.
Okay, that's the understanding, is it? Okay, sorry, I wasn't aware about that. Sorry for this, but there are some concerns around exports to Africa in the two-wheeler category because of demand weakness in Africa, particularly in other EMs because of the high inflation and all of that. How should one look at your export outlook for, say, fiscal 2023 or the remainder of this fiscal and even longer term given the kind of growth what we've had over the last two years? Should one expect double-digit growth on the export front to continue?
Okay. See, as you have seen, we had a significant jump in exports in the recent past. Last year, we almost doubled our exports, although on a low base. This year also the momentum is fortunately quite strong. This kind of uncertainty of one market or one country having some kind of economic cycle always exists in exports. The only strategy is that you have to spread yourself across more such markets and gain from more. As of now, we are bullish on our exports, and it's going quite well. The distribution network of our parent is helping us. So far, fortunately, there is no such signal of inflation or any economic cycle affecting it.
Thanks a lot, and best of luck. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Pramod Amthe from InCred Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Two questions, again, with regard to Grand Vitara. One, wanted to know how are you looking at the segment opportunity in terms of the way you have priced it, the product and the offering which you have on table, including the fuel efficiency. What's the market size there? Do you plan to expand it, exponentially with the new offerings which you have? Can you give some color on it?
I missed the first part of your sentence.
No, I was saying, you have positioned Grand Vitara, what's the market size opportunity is available for that model, based on your price points and also the variants which you have positioned?
Okay. See, today, the SUV segment is about 40% of the market. The middle, if we divide it into three parts, compact SUV, middle SUV and premium SUV, the middle SUV segment is almost 50%. It's more than 50% actually, of that segment. Plus another phenomenon is that if there is a good product, the segment also expands. They say supply, you know, creates its own demand. We think it's a very powerful product and, this is just our second product in the SUV space. We have a further pipeline of products overall in the market, and we would like to maximize. In terms of pricing, I think the features and, the styling, the technologies employed are cutting edge.
We will get a commensurate price for that.
How do you look at the fuel options there, petrol versus diesel split up? Have you been able to attract some of the diesel customers to you because you are providing hybrid options?
This is an expectation. The earlier precedent is that in the entry SUV segment, as I had mentioned earlier, there was 80% diesel, 20% petrol a few years ago. When the Brezza entered, it just reversed from 80/20 to 20/80. If customers see a good product, we expect the same in this segment also, something similar. Diesel also has other disadvantages. I mean, there's a whole, the regulatory part is quite difficult. Still it is perceived as an unclean fuel. We expect customers to have a good pull for strong hybrid gasoline, along with all its advantages.
Sure. The last question related to the way the revenue and expenses recognition for this product. Will it be directly a Toyota plant selling to Maruti Suzuki, or it will go to Suzuki Gujarat and then it will be accounted into Suzuki as sales and expenses?
It has nothing to do with SMG. It is with Maruti. Maruti Suzuki will be selling it to its dealers.
Okay. Sure.
Exporting to many countries of the world.
Okay. Is it fair to know that, the treatment will be similar to the Gujarat plant sourcing you do in terms of expenses and sales, or will there be any key differentiator the way the accounting is done? Just curious to know. In case if there are any concerns.
One thing unique about the SMG contract manufacturing arrangement is that SMG is an exclusive contract manufacturer for Maruti Suzuki. They cannot supply to anybody else-
Okay.
whether in India or abroad. They will supply to us at cost, no profit.
Okay.
This is a unique arrangement. This may not be replicable across other models.
Sure. Thanks, Rahul. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Jinesh Gandhi from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. A couple of questions from my side. First is can you share the export revenues for the quarter and the March quarter as well?
INR 3,640 crores.
INR 3,640 crores. Okay. This is for the current quarter. Would you be willing-
Q1 of this year.
Right. Would you be willing for the fourth quarter of last year?
Three thousand five hundred eleven, three five one one.
Right. Okay. Got it. Secondly, with respect to when you mentioned about JPY benefit in this quarter, it would be hardly anything, right? Because of the lag effect, and the large benefit will come only in 2Q.
Yeah, that's correct. It's not very significant. The bulk of the impact, as I mentioned, will come in subsequent quarters.
Got it. With respect to Brezza 70,000 bookings, Rahul San mentioned about the top period getting the maximum bookings. Is that understanding right or do I misunderstood that?
Yes, that is right. The top two variants, the ZXi plus and ZXi, they contribute more than 50% of the total bookings.
Wow, okay. This is, despite the pricing of those products. Right.
Sorry?
That's very good. I mean, despite prices have increased materially because of the features, which we are offering, so that is what is attracting customers.
Right.
That's very heartening to see. Lastly, a couple of data points on Gujarat production and royalty for the quarter.
Royalty for the quarter continues to be at the same level of 3.7%, right. As we have already mentioned that all these models have now moved to a rupee-based formula, so royalty is pretty much fixed. There's no impact that we have now on any exchange risk that we were earlier carrying. That's on the royalty. What was the other question that you asked?
Gujarat production. SMG production.
About 31% of the volume in the quarter.
31% of the volume that you see is produced by Gujarat.
Yeah, SMG.
Got it. Okay, great, sir. Thanks, and all the best.
Thank you. Next question is from Binay Singh from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity. Two questions. Firstly, when we look at the ASPs of the business, you know, with the Brezza top-end variant selling and the Grand Vitara coming in, clearly the business is going in a very different-
Binay, could you be louder, please?
Yeah. Actually the first question is, you know, when we look at the business, Maruti seems to be at a very interesting point that, you know, your Brezza top-end variant has strong bookings, and even Grand Vitara, you have a sizable hybrid order book. My question is on the hybrid side, how to think of profitability for that segment for Maruti. It's very clear that the ASP jump will be quite sizable that the business will see. How to think of profitability because it's a Toyota technology, Toyota is manufacturing the car. How to think of EBIT per car or margin? Any indication you could give?
Binay, we have to see it in a larger light and a slightly longer-term way. If a technology succeeds and picks up volumes, then automatically economies of scale will pick up and, the customers will be willing to, you know, pay more for it. Any new technology, whenever we have launched, we have kept a larger purpose in mind. Along with that we localize, we do cost reduction, we do innovations and improvisations, and we achieve our desired margins. At the moment, we are far more, you know, focused and concerned about the growth of this technology in India and the benefits that it will bring. Along the way, we'll find a, I mean, it will obviously, if the volumes pick up, it will be healthy on bottom lines also.
Just linked to that, Rahul, what percentage of Vitara portfolio would you aspire to come from strong hybrids? Just directionally trying to understand how big of an opportunity is Maruti looking at this powertrain as, because your peers don't have this, right? It's a great decarbonization technology, which Maruti is sort of starting the journey with.
What's the precise question?
Like what percentage of Grand Vitara would you sort of aspire that, you know, could come from hybrids? What'll be like a target percentage of hybrids?
As of now, the bookings are about 45%.
Is that above your expectations or that's broadly in line with what you are targeting for?
The potential is good, but yes, we are happy to see this response.
Great. And the second question is on the sales promotion expense. Mr. Seth mentioned that they went up during the quarter, and that was a hit to margins. Could you talk a little bit about what parts of the portfolio saw those increases? And now when we look at the coming quarter, which is, you know, we will see like the launch costs will also come in. Do we directionally see them further rising from here on as a percentage of sales?
There are two different parts. Sales promotion really are the discounts that we offer, and discounts will keep varying depending on the type of mix that you are selling and also depending on demand and supply during any given point in time for each of the categories or models that you are selling. There will be some, although overall discounts are much lower than what they used to be typically a couple of years ago, and we've seen a significant fall. Yes, quarter four was I think 11,000 or thereabout. This quarter the average discount has gone up by INR 1,500. I mentioned it, the reasons are largely to do with either the mix or situation of a particular market or particular territory where you have to offer some schemes.
The second question that you asked about launches, et cetera, that is more of marketing cost. Marketing cost obviously will depend on what promotions you are doing and what launches you are doing at a given point in time. Last year, typically, we had virtually very negligible activity on marketing side. We had mentioned also in our earlier calls that the marketing costs obviously will go up this year because of various launches and, you know, other promotions. The physical conferences that we were not having earlier, we have started having now. All that will count towards marketing expenses. There will be some increase, but hopefully if overall volumes go up, then you will get that operating leverage also, which was not available last year.
Oh, okay, sir. Thanks for that.
Thank you. Take the next question from Ashish Jain from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening. Sir, my first question was on the six airbag norms, which is now pretty much, you know, seems it's effective from first of October. Can you speak a bit about what is the cost implication and also, you know, if you go by media articles and all, Maruti will have to do a lot more, you know, designing and all, especially on the entry level of the car. Any update on that will be very helpful.
It's a draft notification, and we believe the government is also studying. The auto industry body, SIAM, is in discussion with the government. It has many facets. The overall safety, factors of safety involved, the cost, affordability, et cetera, the semiconductor, feasibility, et cetera. We are in discussion with the government and the moment we have some concrete idea, we'll let you know.
Sir, second question was, you know, going ahead, can you speak a bit about what is the lagged impact of, you know, both commodities and price hikes, you know, that could come through in Q2, based upon how the commodities are trending today?
Commodities, we mentioned that commodities definitely looks to be going down from these levels. We have more certainty for quarter two because they come with a quarter lag, so we know quarter one situation. We see a downward trend in commodities. In future also, we believe commodities should not go up from these levels. It is very uncertain to say how much will they go down by or if there is any geopolitical situation or anything, any sudden shortage, then we'll have to see. Overall direction of commodities seems to be going down. Quantum, difficult to explain at this point in time. It'll depend on how the markets behave at a given point in time.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. With this, we conclude today's conference call. On behalf of Maruti Suzuki India Limited, we thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.