Car, 2-wheeler majors' step on gas in 2003-04

Car and two-wheeler makers such as Maruti Udyog, Ford, Toyota, Hero Honda Motors, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Company reaped benefits of increased customer spending by posting their highest-ever sales during 2003-04.

Other automakers such as Hyundai Motor India, Tata Motors, General Motors, Honda and Mahindra & Mahindra are also expected to announce significant growth in sales during the year, helped by the excise duty cut in the Budget, cheap finance schemes and higher disposable income with buyers.

Maruti said its sales surged by 30 per cent to 4,72,122 units, an all-time high ever since the company started operations 20 years ago. This included exports of 51,175 units, the highest-ever since Maruti began exporting cars in 1988.

Maruti, which is 54.2 per cent owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation, recorded higher sales of its entry-level car M-800 and compact cars, WagonR, Alto and Zen.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) saw an over 40 per cent jump in sales to 42,562 units during the year ended March 31, 2004. This was helped by a nearly 12 per cent growth in sales of the multi-purpose-vehicle, Qualis, at 31,898 vehicles.

Sales of the premium sedan Corolla grew by 635 per cent to 9,546 units while that of the luxury car Camry soared over 140 per cent to 1,117 units during the period.

The local subsidiary of the US auto maker Ford also recorded its all-time high sales of 21,700 units, a 41 per cent rise over 15,300 units last year.

This was double the 20 per cent growth of the overall passenger vehicle industry in the country, Ford said in a statement.

During April-February 2003-04, domestic sales of passenger vehicles had grown by 30 per cent to 8,02,916 units.

With the automakers reporting impressive performance during March, sales for the whole year is expected to be close to 900,000 units.

Car makers and automobile analysts have said that the sales were all set to cross one million units in 2004-05, which would leapfrog the country into the dozen-odd club of one million plus markets like the US, Japan, Germany, France, China, South Korea and Brazil.

Two-wheelers also continued to command strong demand in the world's second-largest market after China.

Hero Honda achieved record sales of 20,70,157 units during 2003-04, a 23 per cent rise over the previous year's 16,77,537 units.

The second-biggest Bajaj Auto also clocked its all-time high sales of 15,17,413 two and three-wheelers, a 5.2 per cent growth over last year. This was mainly due to an 18 per cent rise in motorcycle sales at 10,23,650 units.

The Chennai-based TVS Motor Company ended the financial year with a 2.5 per cent growth at over one million units for the second consecutive year.