Car sales buck February trend

Car sales saw a major upswing in February, despite price increases and expectations of excise reductions in the Budget that usually prompt consumers to wait and watch.

The domestic sales of Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) grew 61.6 per cent to 59,095 units in February 2007, against 36,608 in February last year. Maruti's major volume came from small cars Zen, Alto, Wagon-R and Swift (where excise duty was not expected to change), which grew by a staggering 79.6 per cent.

However, the big cars from the MUL stable were a disappointment, with sales of the Baleno and Esteem falling 21 per cent.

"Despite the price hike in February, there has been high growth in sales. We expect it to continue despite the hardening of interest rates and government measures to curb demand in the auto sector," said Jagdish Khattar, managing director, Maruti Udyog Limited.

Even for Hyundai, it was its small car Santro which pushed up overall sales by 74 per cent in February (it sold 15,459 units).

Tata Motor, however, grew much slower than the big two (MUL and Hyundai), with car and utility vehicle sales going up by 19 per cent to 21,322 units in February. Its mid-sized cars failed to deliver volumes.

While the company sold 12,580 units of the Indica, growth of 19 per cent over last February, Indigo and Marina sales declined by 6 per cent to 3,436 units.

Large utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra increased its domestic sales by 17.6 cent, clocking 13,266 units in February. Its largest selling SUV, Scorpio, clocked growth of 14 per cent to 2,637 units in February this year, over 2,266 units last year.

Driven by strong sales of its newly launched hatchback, Aveo UV-A (1,085 units), General Motors India registered 81 per cent growth in February sales, selling 3,087 units, against 1,709 units last year.