The Hindu Business Line : Car sales up 73 pc in Feb — Two-wheelers too have a good ride

ARTIFICIALLY low sales in February last year, launch of new car variants and aggressive finance schemes have ensured a bumper February this year for carmakers.

Car sales rose by 73.1 per cent last month to 64,821 units as compared to 37,445 units in February last year, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed.

Sales in February 2003 were quite low due to consumers postponing the purchase of a car in expectation of a decline in the excise duty on cars in the Budget, thus translating in to a reduction in car prices. However, with the Budget for this year still to come, there are no such pressures on sales yet this year. Most major carmakers thereby saw a massive increase in sales during the month. Market leader Maruti Udyog for instance saw its car sales racing ahead to 34,084 units in the month as compared to 19,012 units in February 2003. Hyundai Motor t doubled its sales in the period to 11,556 units from 6,887 units.

It was the compact car segment as well as the mid-size car segment that drove sales during the period. The compact car segment (which consists of the likes of the Hyundai Santro and the Maruti Alto) for instance, grew by 89 per cent to 36,043 units last month from 19,068 units in February last

Sales in the mid-size segment (which consists of the likes of the Honda City and Hyundai Accent) more than doubled to 13,337 units from 6,733 units in the period.

Motorcycle and step-through sales surged by 17.6 per cent to 3,63,655 units from 3,08,994 units in February 2003, while scooters and scooterettes registered a 17.8 per cent growth to 71,363 units last month. Hero Honda, among motorcycle makers, witnessed the highest jump in sales in the month to 2,00,712 units from 1,32,715 units.

Also, with the continued development in the infrastructure sector, the commercial vehicles sector saw sales going up by 32.3 per cent to 25,800 units in February from 19,495 units last year.