Automakers zoom on the fast lane in January - India

Record highest ever monthly sales. 

 
Our Bureau
Mumbai, Feb. 1

January 2010 marks a milestone in the automotive journey of the country with Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and General Motors India reporting their highest ever monthly sales.

Maruti, the top carmaker, set a new sales record of nearly 96,000 units while its closest challenger, Hyundai Motor India, clocked 52,635 units and, in the process, its highest ever domestic sales at 29,601 units. For Tata Motors, passenger vehicle sales of 26,245 units are its highest ever to date. Similarly, Mahindra & Mahindra and GM India saw their sales reaching all-time highs of 20,332 and 9,421 units respectively.

Two-wheelers

On the two-wheeler front too, market leader Hero Honda clocked sales of 3.89 lakh motorcycles and gearless scooters in January, a growth of 23 per cent.

Maruti, which posted its highest ever monthly sales at 95,649 cars (surpassing its previous high of 87,807 units two months ago), showed a 33 per cent growth from January 2009 (71,779 units).

“Had we not shut down our plants for the first five days of the month for annual maintenance, we would have crossed the one lakh unit mark in January,” said Mr Mayank Parikh, Executive Officer, Sales and Marketing.

The month also saw the company treble its exports to 14,562 units and register a 40 per cent growth in the multipurpose vehicle segment, which almost touched 11,000, with the new Eeco. The compact car portfolio comprising the Alto, the Wagon-R, the Zen, the Swift, the A-Star and the Ritz posted a 25 per cent growth at 58,540 units. However, the old warhorses such as the Gypsy and the M800 have been showing a decline in sales.

Hyundai's run

Hyundai, in its turn, reported a 42 per cent growth in sales. The country's largest car exporter despatched 23,034 cars overseas last month. With record numbers for the domestic market, it now hopes to maintain the momentum. “We hope the momentum will continue with the help of the stimulus package offered by the Government,” said Mr Arvind Saxena, Director, Sales and Marketing.

Tata Motors had cause for cheer with sales of 7,258 units in the sedan segment, its highest ever since the Indigo launch in 2002. This was largely thanks to the recently launched Manza. The Nano accounted for a little over 4,000 units while the Indica range was flat at 11,448 units. The Sumo/Safari utility-vehicle portfolio grew 21 per cent to 3,538 units.

Growing sales of Bolero and Scorpio, coupled with additional volumes brought by the Xylo, contributed to a 51 per cent growth for M&M. “January is an auspicious period across north India as well as Tamil Nadu which celebrates Pongal. This leads to good sales,” said Mr Arun Malhotra, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Customer Care.

GM at new high

GM India's numbers more than doubled to a new high of 9,421 units on the back of the Chevrolet Beat and the Cruze, which sold 2,825 and 616 units, respectively. The Spark continued its steady run with 3,477 units.

The company has stated that it has already got over 10,000 bookings for the Beat, which was launched a month ago.

The two-wheeler segment showed an equally buoyant performance with market leader, Hero Honda clocking nearly four lakh units in January and maintaining its good run of an average 3.5 lakh units over the last year. TVS Motor Company posted sales of 1,25,578 units, up from 93,729 units, a growth of 34 per cent.

manu@thehindu.co.in