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Automobile sales in January were a mixed bag in all segments, including passenger cars, two-wheelers and commercial vehicles, as rural markets have still not picked up.
In the passenger car market, while market leaders like Maruti Suzuki India and Hyundai Motor India continue to grow in double digits, companies such as Mahindra & Mahindra and Honda Cars India continue to report a fall in sales.
While Maruti Suzuki sold around 1.34 lakh units, up 26 per cent against 1.06 lakh units in January 2016, Hyundai Motor India sold 42,017 units last month, compared with 38,016 units (10 per cent up) in the same month last year.
With the success of its small car Tiago, Tata Motors also grew by 21 per cent year-on-year in sales at 12,907 units in January, as against 10,728 units in corresponding month last year.
“Tata Motor passenger vehicle business grew by 21 per cent with consistent growth in car sales, owing to a robust demand for Tiago. We have completed the national launch of our new lifestyle UV, Hexa this month. It has received a good response and we expect this momentum to continue in the coming months,” said Mayank Pareek, President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor also achieved 21 per cent sales on the success of the new Fortuner and recorded total domestic sales of 10,336 units, against 8,511 units in January last year. However, M&M recorded a 9 per cent decline in sales year-on-year to 20,096 units in January, compared with 22,088 units in January 2016.
“The auto industry continues to see mixed reactions and some of the segments including the rural market and the commercial vehicles category continue to face challenging times,” Pravin Shah, President & Chief Executive (Automotive), M&M said. In the two-wheeler segment, market leader Hero MotoCorp reported a decline of 13 per cent Y-o-Y, which sold 4.87 lakh units during the month against 5.63 lakh units in January last year.
Similarly, Pulsar maker Bajaj Auto also reported fall of 15 per cent in its motorcycle sales to around 1.20 lakh units in January, against 1.41 lakh units in same month last year.
However, another major player Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India managed to report 2 per cent higher sales at 3.68 lakh units during January, compared with around 3.62 lakh units in January 2016.
Similarly, Apache maker TVS Motor managed to sell a similar number of two-wheelers in January on Y-o-Y basis. In the commercial vehicles segment, both Tata Motors and M&M reported negative sales in January compared with the same month last year.
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