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Our Bureau

Mumbai, Nov. 1 The sales figures of festive month have been a mixed bag for car makers in the country. The largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki reported an eight per cent drop in volumes while the second largest, Hyundai’s sales are 10 per cent up. General Motors India showed a five per cent growth in volumes while Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) recorded a 72 per cent drop in sales .

For the largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki, total vehicle sales slid by eight per cent to 59,127 units in October against the year-ago period.

The sales of old models, M800 and Omni, continue to shrink. The A2 segment – made up of Alto, Wagon-R, Zen and Swift – the volume driver of Maruti – showed close to eight per cent drop at 43,434.

Hyundai’s domestic sales grew 10 per cent to 20,009 in October when compared to the same period last year. With a steep rise in export figures, Hyundai posted 66 per cent growth in overall sales at 46,660.

“However, we feel the growth would have been even stronger had we not faced such an economic situation. In the coming months too, if the situation does not ease off then the automotive industry here will be in for very tough times,” said Mr Arvind Saxena, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Hyundai Motor India.

Recently, Hyundai started its third shift operation at the second plant in Chennai to meet the market demand.

GM showed a 5 per cent growth in volumes on the back of 4,390 units of the Chevrolet Spark. The small car registered its all-time high sales numbers in October.

GM has sustained marginal growth in the depressing market due to new introductions such as Spark, U-VA and Captiva, said Mr P. Balendran, Vice-President, General Motors India.

HSCI sold 1,476 units in October 2008 against 5,287 units sold last year. Honda attributed the huge drop in sales numbers to the phasing out of Honda City ZX and economic slow down. Mr. Tatsuya Natsume, Director –Marketing, said, “There is an overall slowdown in the industry because of factors such as liquidity crunch, difficulty in getting finance, high rate of interest and negative sentiment owing to economic scenario. HSCI sales performance has been particularly affected since the Honda City ZX is in the run out phase for which we had stopped the production last month.”

He said the deliveries of the new City will begin from November. “We have already got bookings of nearly 4,000 cars since the launch announcement,” he said.

Hyundai, the country’s largest car exporter, registered a 168 per cent growth at 26,651 units in October. Hyundai said the export surge is mainly due to the “global success” of i10. Maruti exported 5,363 units, showing an increase of four per cent.

More Stories on : Cars | Events | Trends | Maruti Udyog Ltd

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