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The country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has witnessed a surge in sales in its super compact model Dzire in September even as utility vehicles and vans saw a sharp tumble in sales.
But what is more significant is that the sale of cars in the lower end of the segment had witnessed only marginal increase, indicating that the economic stress is seen impacting buyers in this price segment.
The mini segment in which Maruti has four models-M800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR- witnessed only 4.9 per cent sales growth with sale of 41,061 units compared to 39,150 units in the same month in 2012.
In the compact segment (Swift, Estilo and Ritz), the company sold 20,828 units (17,813 vehicles), a growth of 16.9 per cent.
But it was in the super compact segment where Maruti has its popular model Dzire the sales had surged to 16,708 units, a 42.9 per cent jump, from 11,694 units in Sept 2012.
Its mid-size sedan SX4 also registered a sales growth of 31.3 per cent to 378 vehicles (288). The total sale of passenger cars was up by 14.5 per cent to 78,975 units (68,957 units).
Utility vehicles
However, in the utility vehicles segment, the company took a sharp knock with sales of Gypsy, Grand Vitara and Ertiga falling to 2,657 units (7,224 units), a fall of 63.2 per cent.
Sales of vans declined to 8,767 units (12,620 units), a fall of 30.5 per cent. The cumulative domestic sales growth was a mere 1.8 per cent during September this year-to 90,399 units (88,801 units).
The export sales witnessed a 180.8 per cent jump to 14,565 units (5,187 units). The total sales were up 11.7 per cent to 1,04,964 units (93,988 units).
Six months sales
In the first six months of the current fiscal, the passenger cars witnessed a 10.7 per cent sales growth to 4,13,537 units (3,73,686 units).
But sale of utility vehicles has fallen sharply in the first half of current year compared to the same period last year. Total sales, including exports, has recorded a 3 per cent increase to 5,42,020 units compared to 5,26,272 units in the same period last year.
For the full year last year, the company’s total sales were 11,71,434 units, including exports.
The shares of Maruti were up by Rs 33.75 to Rs 1,391.70 on the BSE after the September car sales figures were out .
>yegya.narayanan@thehindu.co.in
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