Car sales up 16% in Nov, two-wheelers slip 2%

Car sales rose 16.4 per cent in November from a year earlier, powered by small cars from Maruti Suzuki India Ltd riding on festival demand, according to data published on Tuesday.

Carmakers sold 1,03,031 units in November, against 88,501 in the same month a year earlier, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said. In October, sales had risen 14.6 per cent to 1,05,878 units.

Overall, the automobile industry grew positively for the first time after several months of negative growth.

Sales in India usually peak during October and November, which is the festival season and many workers get their annual bonuses during this period. 
 

ROAD SIGNS
	October 2007	November		Y-o-Y % chng
		2006	2007
Commercial vehicles	43,645	40,313	40,466	0.4
Medium and heavy vehicle	23,241	22,862	22,061	-3.5
Light vehicles	20,404	17,451	18,405	5.5
Passenger cars	1,05,878	88,501	1,03,031	16.4
Multi-purpose vehicles	9,357	7,150	8,204	14.7
Utility vehicles	23,269	16,110	19,692	22.2
Two-wheelers	7,93,420	6,79,215	6,65,181	-2.1
Scooter/scooterettes	98,752	88,831	89,078	0.3
Motorcycle/step-throughs	6,57,874	5,56,612	5,40,553	-2.9
Mopeds	34,697	29,249	33,557	14.7
Electric 2-wheelers	2,097	4,523	1,993	-55.9
Three-wheelers	35,394	34,419	30,124	-12.5
Total	10,10,963	8,65,708	8,66,698	0.1
Exports	1,02,063	78,944	90,444	14.6

Mixed bag
Maruti Suzuki, India's No 1 carmaker that is 54.2 per cent owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, led the field with sales rising 24 per cent to 65,216 units, buoyed by its best selling Alto compact car, SIAM said. New models like SX4, Swift and the Zen Estilo helped immensely.

GM, a tiny player in the Indian market, saw sales jump more than 300 per cent to 3,653 units on the back of rising sales of its Spark and U-VA small cars.

Cars smaller than 4 metres enjoy tax breaks in India and have been the country's top-selling and fastest-growing car segment.

Sales for South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co, India's second largest carmaker, grew 15.5 per cent to 19,041 units in November, helped by small cars such as Santro and the new i10.

But No 3 carmaker Tata Motors Ltd posted a 21.4 per cent drop in car sales to 12,502 units as high interest costs squeezed demand.

"Growth is seen primarily in the new car segment as older cars like Tata Indica and Indigo have seen a huge decline. The trend of subdued volumes in the category will continue in the coming months," an auto analyst said. 
 

	April-November		Y-o-Y  % chng
	2006-07	2007-08
Commercial vehicles	2,85,018	2,96,043	3.9
Medium and heavy vehicle	1,67,465	1,61,135	-3.8
Light vehicles	1,17,553	1,34,908	14.8
Passenger cars	6,84,266	7,78,530	13.8
Multi-purpose vehicles	52,235	62,340	19.3
Utility vehicles	1,35,459	1,52,534	12.6
Two-wheelers	53,31,418	49,23,928	-7.6
Scooter/scooterettes	6,15,053	7,18,260	16.8
Motorcycle/step-throughs	44,71,317	39,19,717	-12.3
Mopeds	2,24,979	2,73,023	21.4
Electric 2-wheelers	20,069	12,928	-35.6
Three-wheelers	2,67,798	2,49,539	-6.8
Total	67,56,194	64,62,914	-4.3
Exports	6,81,910	8,00,524	17.4
Source : Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers

Bikes slow
Motorcycle sales, meanwhile, slowed by 2 per cent to 5,40,553 units, the smallest fall so far this fiscal. Most entry-level bikes are bought on finance schemes.

Manufacturers have said December could see a reversal of the downtrend in the world's second-largest bike market with the launch of new models.

No 2 bikemaker Bajaj Auto and third-ranked TVS Motor Co led the decline again. Bajaj sold 1,74,939 motorcycles in November, almost 9 per cent below a year earlier, while TVS sales fell 22.5 per cent to 48,345 units.

Bikes with engine capacity between 125 cc and 250 cc saw a rise in sales in November to 1,55,780 from 1,19,480 a year ago.

December hope
TVS Motors, makers of the Scooty model, has been struggling to generate positive sales since the start of this year mainly due to the absence of new products.

Top motorcyle maker Hero Honda Motors Ltd, which held a market share of close to 46 per cent last month, grew by a decent 3.5 per cent, selling 2.88 lakh units. The growth was helped once again by the launch of its 150 cc Hulk.

Analysts suggest that most two-wheeler companies are likely to miss their annual sales targets.