Maruti, Hyundai record best monthly sales in October

Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) also reported a 52% increase in its domestic sales at 20,166 units in October

Riding high on festive demand, car sales grew at a brisk pace with the market leader Maruti Suzuki India and rival Hyundai Motor India posting their best-ever monthly dispatches in October. Honda Cars India, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors also saw sales rise during the month. Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said its domestic sales surged by 24.7 per cent during the month to 121,063 units, against 97,069 units in October last year.

"With new models and product refreshments, we are upbeat on the festival season. In anticipation of good retail sales during this time, we have adequately prepared our network. This is the company's highest-ever domestic and total sales number," MSI Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) R S Kalsi said.

Sales of small cars, including the Alto and WagonR, increased 5.2 per cent to 37,595 units, compared with 35,753 units in the year-ago month. Dispatches in the compact segment comprising the Swift, Estilo, Ritz, Dzire and the recently launched Baleno rose 37.7 per cent to 51,048 units during the past month.

Rival Hyundai Motor India also saw its highest monthly domestic sales at 47,015 units last month, against 38,010 units in October 2014, up 23.7 per cent. "Hyundai sales of 47,015 units are at an all-time high, with sales of Grand i10 at 14,079 units and continued strong performance of modern premium brands Creta and Elite i20/Active," HMIL Senior Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said. It expects the growth momentum to continue in the coming months with improving customer sentiments.

Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) also reported a 52 per cent increase in its domestic sales at 20,166 units in October. It had sold 13,242 units in the same month last year. "The festive demand has led to a strong growth for HCIL during October wherein we recorded our highest monthly sales of this fiscal year," HCIL, Senior Vice President (Marketing & Sales), Jnaneswar Sen said.

Mahindra's domestic sales were up 21 per cent 48,815 to units last month as against 40,278 units in October last year. "We are happy with our performance during October 2015, which has witnessed a positive growth of 20 per cent backed by excellent response garnered from the recently launched TUV300 as well as other brands such as XUV500, Scorpio, Bolero and pickups. We are quite hopeful of this positive growth momentum continuing for the rest of the year," M&M Chief Executive (Automotive Division) Pravin Shah said.

Pravin Shah said, "With the drop in interest rates and the fuel prices remaining benign, we expect the industry to maintain a good growth momentum going forward."

Tata Motors domestic passenger vehicles sales were up 11 per cent at 12,798 units in the period under review compared with 11,511 units last year.

"The growth trend was driven by the cars segment, specifically the new launches," the company said.