Passenger vehicle makers appear to have bucked the general trend of slowing demand, registering an overall sales growth of over 14 per cent in April to 1,38,772 units over the same month a year ago.
Healthy export growth, driven by incentives offered by European governments to consumers buying new cars, saw Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motors India record a 13 per cent rise in domestic and overseas sales in April to 116,119 units.
The two car makers account for over 60 per cent of car sales in India. Exports for the two companies grew 36 per cent against a 7.5 per cent growth for domestic sales. Both companies, however, are cautious about predicting the same trend for the rest of this fiscal year.
| OFF THE BEATEN TRACK | |
| MARUTI | |
%
71779
5.4
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79190
24.0
85669
22.0
71748
15.0
308386
17.0
For Maruti, April marks the fourth consecutive month sales crossed 70,000 units. The company saw total sales (domestic plus overseas) rise 15 per cent at 71,748 units, against 62,336 units in the same month a year ago. Exports as a percentage of total sales more than doubled to 10 per cent from 4.5 per cent in the same month a year ago.
| OFF THE BEATEN TRACK | |
| Hyundai | % |
| 37216 | -1.3 |
| 38254 | 32.0 |
| 46160 | -2.0 |
| 44371 | 11.0 |
| 166001 | 8.0 |
Meanwhile, exports in April grew a staggering 146 per cent to 6,891 units, while domestic sales grew a modest 9 per cent. Explaining the jump in exports, Mayank Pareek, executive officer (sales and marketing), Maruti Suzuki, said, "Exports to Europe are largely incentive-driven and derived from scrapping old cars, for which governments grant a ¤1,500 bonus per car. We have also started exporting the A-star, which was not in our portfolio last year."
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| Honda | % |
| 5773 | -25.0 |
| 5579 | 48.0 |
| 7368 | -17.0 |
| 3656 | 7.5 |
| 22376 | -6.0 |
April saw the company export, for the first time, around 2,000 A-Stars as part of a contract with Nissan that will retail it mainly in the UK under the Pixo brand name. By the end of the year, Maruti hopes to export 30,000 A-Stars, which it launched last year, to Nissan.
| OFF THE BEATEN TRACK | |
| Mahindra | % |
| 13397 | -11.0 |
| 10257 | 12.0 |
| 19973 | 30.0 |
| 18447 | 36.0 |
| 62074 | 10.0 |
Continuing the trend of the last few months, sales of the Maruti 800, the oldest car in the portfolio, fell 47 per cent to 2,345 units during the month. Analysts said the enthusiastic response to the Tata Nano also impacted demand.
Sales in the A2 segment which comprises the Alto, WagonR, Zen Estilo, Swift and A-Star grew a healthy 9 per cent. However, the biggest growth was in the A3 segment, in which DZire and the SX4 together grew 69 per cent.
After a significant fall in sales in March, Korean giant Hyundai Motors (HMIL) bounced back in April, with exports shooting up almost 20 per cent to 22,124 units. Arvind Saxena, HMIL senior vice-president-marketing and sales, also admitted that exports were driven by subsidies to consumers to scrap old cars for new ones offered by Italy, Germany and France, amongst others, but qualified the company's export performance. "We had an export target of about 300,000 cars this year but we have met only 80 to 85 per cent of that target," he said. Exports account for half HMIL's sales
HMIL's domestic sales grew a marginal 3.5 per cent to 22,247 units, mainly driven by demand for the i10 model, launched two years ago, which surged despite a roughly 13 per cent price rise in mid-February. On domestic sales, Saxena said, "One can predict whether the market is back on track only after the elections."
Meanwhile, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) also saw a 7.5 per cent surge in April, selling 3,656 units. “We have shown resilience during the slowdown and have entered the new financial year on a positive note," said Jnaneswar Sen, vice-president, marketing, HSCI, adding, “We are very excited about our new premium car, Honda Jazz, that will be launched very soon in India.”
Utility vehicle major, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) also reported a strong sales growth last month on the back of robust demand for Xylo, a multi-utility vehicle launched in January. Domestic sales of Scorpio, Bolero and Xylo, grew 36 per cent to 18,447 units against 13,560 units sold in the same month a year ago. Car exports form an insignificant part of M&M's sales.
"All our products, including the Scorpio, Bolero and Xylo, continue to outperform the industry. The Xylo continues its strong run since its launch and has posted its highest monthly sales of 3,509 units in April," said Rajesh Jejurikar, chief of operations, automotive sector, M&M.
Sales of the Logan sedan, which the company manufactures along with partner Renault, continued to dwindle, however. Only 550 units of the model were sold, a 68 per cent drop against 1,713 units sold in the same month a year ago.