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Almost every vehicle maker is waiting for the elections to get over, hoping for demand to return to the market with a new government at the Centre. Makers of cars, sports utility vehicles, trucks and buses, motorcycles and scooters have thus placed their bets on a series of new models and face-lift launches for the coming months.
As many as 20 passenger vehicle launches, including 11 of new models, will be done in the second half of this year. A full range of heavy duty mining trucks, luxury buses, premium and entry motorcycles and automatic scooters will also be launched in the months starting from June.
This includes the launches of Zest and Bolt, the most important by Tata Motors in the six years since the Nano was launched in 2008. Multi-seater vehicles from Honda (Mobilio) and Datsun (GO Plus), the Ciaz, a sedan from Maruti Suzuki; the Avventura, a crossover from Fiat, and a supercar from Lamborghini, the Hurancan, are some others.
The battle between luxury car brands Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW will continue, with all three readying launches. Mercedes-Benz India will bring the GLA SUV, Audi will launch the A3, its most affordable sedan yet, and BMW will introduce the X5 facelift.
Two-wheeler and commercial vehicle companies aren’t lagging. Bajaj Auto, Honda, Mahindra and TVS Motors will launch new motorcycles and scooters. Truck and bus makers Tata Motors, VECV (an Eicher associate company) and Ashok Leyland will launch a variety of products from mini to mining trucks and luxury inter-city coaches.
P Balendran, vice-president, General Motors India, said: “Customer sentiment continues to remain negative, even with price reduction on account of excise duty cuts and other market promotion schemes. We expect the challenging times to continue, as general economic conditions continue to remain depressed.”
Manufacturers are looking up to the post-election and festive period lift, to pull themselves out of the slump. 2013 was the worst year for automotive sales, the first annual decline in 11 years. “The buoyancy in the market is completely missing and we don’t see any market upturn before the new government assumes office,” added Balendran. Steep inflation, higher fuel prices and expensive loans kept buyers away.
The four per cent excise duty cut announced in the interim budget of the outgoing government made no difference to demand, as car sales in April recorded the steepest fall in 12 months.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers is expected to press the new government to keep the excise duty cut unchanged during the coming budget.
New models launched this calendar year such as Maruti Celerio, Hyundai Xcent, Honda City and Datsun GO have generated ‘very satisfactory’ demand, say their manufacturers.
Two-wheeler makers, especially those with presence in the scooter segment, have escaped the slowdown, with overall sales rising seven per cent in 2013-14 to 14.8 million units. In this period, sales of commercial vehicles came down by 20 per cent and that of medium and heavy vehicles by 25 per cent.
Coming Up...
1. Tata Zest
2. Tata Bolt
3. Honda Jazz
4. Honda Mobilio
5. Datsun Go Plus
6. Audi A3
7. Mercedes GLA
8. Maruti Ciaz
9. Renault Duster facelift
10. Fiat Avventura
11. Fiat 500 Abarth
12. Mahindra Scorpio facelift
13. Skoda Yeti facelift
14. Maruti Swift facelift
15. Maruti Swift dzire facelift
16. BMW M5
17. Lamborghini Hurracan
18. VW Polo facelift
19. Ford Fiesta facelift - June
20. Nissan Sunny facelift
21. BMW X5 facelift
VECV - 11 trucks
Tata Motors - Ultra, Ace facelift
Ashok Leyland - new trucks under Captain brand
