Tata Motors, Leyland keep up tempo in July

Hyundai steps on the gas with 50% jump in car sales

Tata Motors sold 30,057 vehicles in July 2004, registering a 20.3 per cent growth over the sales in July 2003. Cumulative sales in the April-July, 2004 period were 114, 975 units compared with 86,013 vehicles sold last year, a growth of 33.7 per cent.

The company sold 13,215 commercial vehicles in July 2004, an increase of 16 per cent over 11,384 units sold in July 2003. Medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales stood at 9,136 units, up 17.4 per cent and light commercial vehicle sales stood at 4,079 units, up 13.3 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

Volumes in the passenger vehicle business grew marginally by 1.3 per cent at 15,275 units in July 2004. The company's exports for the month of July 2004 were 1,567 units compared with 1,430 vehicles sold in July 2003, an increase of 9.6 per cent.

Despite its tally in the domestic market slipping, Ashok Leyland's July 2004 sales showed a 11 per cent improvement over the same month's tally in 2003. The company sold a total of 3,839 vehicles last month, as compared to 3,449 vehicles sold in July 2003.

This was clearly made possible only by the 229 per cent surge in export volumes to 633 vehicle this July, as compared to 192 vehicles sold during the same month last year. On the other hand, the domestic slipped by about three per cent to 3,206 (3,257) vehicles.

What is interesting is that month-on-month the comparative figures have a different story to tell. Domestic sales actually saw a half per cent rise between June and July this year, while the exports actually show a slip, from 3,189 units and 709 in June.

In the domestic market, both the MDV passenger and LCV segments replicated the overall scenario, showing decline in the domestic market in comparison to the previous year's July, but improvement over June's performance. However, in the case of the company's mainstay - MDV goods segment - it was an improvement over July 2003 in the domestic market, but it slipped on the June sales. On the export front, the MDV goods and passenger showed a substantial jump from the previous year's tallies, but fell back a bit from the June figures. In the case of LCVs though, the exports was down from previous year but up from June.

Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor India registered a 50 per cent increase in its July sales over the previous year. Its total sales last month was 19,641, a company statement issued here said. The company has not provided any comparative figures from the previous year. Its domestic sales in July was 13,012 units, while exports were 6,629 units. Santro`Xing' sales was 16,522 units, while the month sold 2,555 Accents, 522 Elantra, 50 Sonata and 57 of the sport utility vehicle Terracan.