Despite discounts during the festival season, car sales in October continued the year?s sluggish trend seen in the first half of the fiscal for most players such as Hyundai and Tata Motors. However, market leader Maruti Suzuki and utility vehicle major Mahindra emerged as the saviours for the industry owing to factors such as the low base of last year and high demand for diesel vehicles.
The poor general performance is despite strong hopes of a sales boost in the second half of the month, which saw the start of the festival season. Depressed consumer sentiments, following high interest rates and rising fuel prices, pulled sales down significantly below the 20-25% month-on-month growth, which is the usual norm for the October-November festive period, according to both carmakers and auto financers.
Maruti?s 86% rise in sales at 96,002 units in October is largely attributed to a very low base of October last year, when the carmaker sold only 51,458 units following the 2011 labour strike that led to a production halt at its Manesar plant for most of October. The Ertiga MPV and new Alto (has 30,000 bookings in 14 days since launch) also boosted volumes, along with the diesel Swift and Dzire, which are back in production with volumes at Manesar being ramped after the plant was closed for about a month again this year following the July 18 violence.
?The first part of the festive season has not been as encouraging, apart from few successes such as the Maruti Alto. There is some hope of a pick-up by Diwali, but that will hardly be enough to pull up sales for the entire festive period,? an industry official said.
With about 40% share of the market, Maruti?s strong performance in terms of percentage growth is likely to pull up the growth numbers for the overall car market for October.
Mahindra?s strong 43% growth in the month at 26,932 units will also be a boost to the industry. Now the third-largest passenger vehicle company displacing Tata Motors, Mahindra?s sales went up both on a strong demand for newly launched Quanto compact SUV and market shift towards diesel vehicles.
Meanwhile, Hyundai saw a much smaller 8% rise in sales at 35,778 units with a good performance coming in from the Eon compact and Elantra sedan. Hyundai?s exports though saw a 50% jump to 23,007 units.
Tata Motors saw sales decline 16% in the month to 21,119 units. Sales of the Nano were up 4% at 4,004 units in October, though Indica and Indigo range sales fell 38% (at 6,692 units) and 8% (5,748 units). Tata?s utility vehicle sales were up 12% to 4,675 units.
General Motors reported a 33% drop in sales in October at 6,754 units, while Ford saw a 6% drop at 7,577 units. Toyota Kirloskar saw sales jump 14% to 12,281 units largely on demand for diesel vehicles such as the Innova and Fortuner, though Etios range sales dropped 21% at 4,596 units. Honda Cars saw sales jump 46% at 8,085 units, while Renault clocked its highest-ever sales at 6,790 units, of which Duster compact SUV accounted for 5,406 units.
