Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has registered an18-21 per cent increase in sales across its offerings in the fiscal, in the eastern region, compared to a 0.3 per cent rise in overall sales nationally.
Patna was the growth driver for the east buoyed by the Bolero sales. The Bolero sold 49,600 units between April 2008 to January 2009, up by almost 10 per cent over last fiscal. "Tier-II cities that have been relatively less affected by the realty and the stock market crisis have been doing well in terms of automotive sales.", said B Kapoor, vice president, sales, M&M. "Customers here usually approach banks instead of non-banking financial companies(NBFC) and the problem of cash crunch has been less.", he claimed.
As for the Scorpio, the company has sold 4,218 vehicles till January this year, compared to 3,482 vehicles sold in the same period last year. Growth in other vehicles including the Bolero, Mahindra Pik-Ups, have been around 18 per cent in the East that comprises Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, informed company officials. Mahindra commands a 50 per cent market share in the UV segment in the East.
With the launch of India's first BS-IV compliant diesel vehicle, the new upgrade of Mahindra Scorpio, after the company launched an automatic variant in October last year, the company is bullish and plans to increase its market share further. Though Kapoor declined to give out figures, he claimed that the company's market share in the multi-utility vehicles segment had grown to 56 per cent till December 2008 compared to a 51 per cent share in the same period previous fiscal.
The Scorpio has sold 25,000 vehicles between April-December this fiscal, compared to 36,000 vehicles in FY08. The year could end flat as the latest variant of the vehicle, the Scorpio automatic has not been doing as expected. It has sold around 300 vehicles so far. The leading Mahindra dealer in the city informed that sales were as low as one or two units a month.