Tata Motors pips Hyundai in Jan sales

Marking a first, Tata Motors has crept past Hyundai Motor India Ltd in domestic car sales in January to gain the coveted second slot in the Indian car market.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Tata Motors, whose range included the Indica hatchback, the Indigo sedan and the Marina station wagon, sold 17,673 units in January, which was marginally above Hyundai's total sales of 17,452 units.

The Tatas sold over 14,466 Indica cars, which was slightly lower than the sales of 14,592 units of the Santro hatchback in January.

However, Tata Motors gained in sales of midsized Indigo and Marina, clocking 3,207 units in January, against Hyundai's mid-sized car sales of 2,860 (this includes the Accent, Verna, Elantra and Sonata).

Analysts say the growing preference for diesel cars and better performance of Tata cars in particular has helped the company, whereas Hyundai has been unable to launch new models and suffered some production issues.

"Hyundai is upgrading capacity and will be able to ramp up production for domestic sales by the last quarter this year," said Huzaifa Suratwala of Emkay Share and Stock Brokers.