Car companies still on a bumpy drive

Maruti Suzuki’s vehicle sales in the domestic market are up nearly 52 per cent in August over the same month last year. But the company says this increase is on a low base last year, when the its Manesar plant was on strike and sales were consequently hit.

Mayank Pareek, Chief Operating Officer – Marketing and Sales, says the market is extremely tight. Moreover, he adds, a matter of concern for the industry is that total cars sales are below the two-lakh mark for the third month running.

The market leader Maruti Suzuki and most other manufacturers say that poor market sentiments – an economic slowdown, job cuts, rising fuel prices and high interest rates – continue to affect sales. Honda Cars was one of the few manufacturers to record a robust growth in sales in August 2013 over the same month last year, thanks mainly to its newly launched entry-level sedan Amaze. Vehicle manufacturers are looking to the festival season and some planned new launches to lift sales over the next few months.

Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Honda Cars, said the company would increase production of the Amaze to take advantage of the festival season.Maruti Suzuki recorded a 61 per cent growth in total sales. Exports trebled last month to 11,305 cars.

Nearly half of Maruti Suzuki’s sales were in the entry segment or the so-called ‘A’ segment - which saw about 32,019 cars being sold against 22,062 in the corresponding month last year. The compact segment that includes the models — Swift, Estilo and Ritz — saw a three-fold growth to 17,409. But utility vehicles that include Gypsy, Ertiga declined 34 per cent to 4,563 units in the month. Sale of vans (Omni, Eeco) was also down to 7,956 units. Second largest player Hyundai Motor India’s (HMIL) total sales were up 11.56 per cent to 52,319.

The company’s exports picked up smartly and registered a 29 per cent growth to 24,008. Domestic sales were, however, flat at 28,311 units.

Rakesh Srivastava, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, HMIL, said that exports had grown due to good demand in non-European markets. But frequent and steep increases in fuel prices had impacted already low sentiments in the domestic market, he said.

Toyota Kirloskar Motors’ August sales declined six per cent to 15,201 units. On the exports front, it was able to nearly treble its sale to 3,194 units. Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, said the company had increased prices of its models Camry and Fortuner by one per cent to take care of inflation and rupee depreciation.

Ashok Leyland’s sale of trucks and buses declined by 25 per cent to 4,939 vehicles (6,597). Similarly, sale of Dost, the small commercial vehicle, declined by 22 per cent to 2,200 vehicles (2,835).

COMMENT NOW