The Hindu Business Line : Festive Oct drives car, 2-wheeler sales

According to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), car sales grew to 56,232 units in October from 45,325 units in the same month last year.

"Usually the festive season does not see very high growth in sales of cars, as people generally like to wait till the beginning of the year to buy a new car. However, with the festive season coming earlier this year, consumers have been keener to go in for a new car in the period", points out an industry official.

In addition to the festive season, new launches in the segment combined with attractive finance schemes and freebies on offer helped push sales in the month.

All three major car makers - Maruti Udyog, Hyundai India and Tata Motors - saw a healthy rise in car sales ranging from 22 to 32 per cent during the period

Meanwhile, the utility vehicles segment, which has been seeing a lot of action in the past few months, grew by 30.2 per cent in October to 12,928 units (9,925 units).

In the two-wheelers segment, both the motorcycle and scooter/scooterettee segment saw healthy growth. Sales of motorcycles/step-thrus, driven by good growth seen by Bajaj Auto and Hero Honda, went up by 30.3 per cent to 4,38,991 units (3,36,883).

Apart from the festive season, factors such as good monsoons and increased purchasing power in the rural areas too helped push sales for bikes.

While Hero Honda saw an increase of around 56.2 per cent in sales in the month, sales of Bajaj Auto grew by 24.7 per cent.

Interestingly, the scooter/scooterettee segment, which had been seeing depressed growth in the past, turned around to see 10.8 per cent growth in October.

Sales in the segment grew to 87,741 units in October 2003 from 79,132 units in the same month last year, driven particularly by growing sales of Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India.

Commercial vehicles too saw good growth in the month with sales increasing by 31.6 per cent to 22,015 units (16,727 units).

Both medium and heavy (M&H) and light commercial vehicles (LCV) categories witnessed strong demand.

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