While all the top most carmakers in Indian automobile industry celebrating the success of their scaled up sales in the second month of 2015, the home-grown auto giant Mahindra & Mahindra is struggling with the sales. The carmaker that has been counted in the top players in the industry faced a 10% sales drop in the month of February. The company managed to sell 38,033 units as compared to the 42,166 units in the same month last year. In a quick effect of falling sales, the shares of Mahindra have also fallen by nearly 4% in the stock exchange. Though exports sales kept its momentum of profit, the domestic sales could not even match the last year figures for the similar period. In terms of specified numbers, exports stood at 3,115 units registering 10% growth against the 2,882 units shipped to overseas market in February 2014. And domestic sales are recorded at 34,918 units, which are nearly 11% less than the sales of February 2014, which managed to record 39,388 units.
Even the passenger cars in Mahindra’s stable could not do well and they too faced 6% slump in sales. The passenger vehicle range that include utility vehicle and Verito series managed to clock 18,103 units in the month of February as opposed to 19,308 units sales in the corresponding month last year. Moreover, the four-wheeler commercial vehicle sales also went down by 19% to 11,928 units in February 2015 against 14,701 units sold in year ago period. Moreover, the 3-wheelers division also lost luster with a 12% slump at 4,156 unit sales compared to the 4,724 units in same period in 2014. If we look at the yearly sales of Mahindra, we will get to know that year to date sales have also gone down 8% with one month remaining in FY. The sales in April 2014- February 2015 period stood at 1.89 lakh units as compared to the 2.06 lakh units in the corresponding period in FY 2013-14.
It seems that the excise duty benefit cut in January has badly impacted Mahindra sales by hitting the SUV driven range of the carmaker. The recent rollback in excise duty benefits reduced the SUVs demand in the country and as a result M&M suffered a lot. Furthermore, with no relief in recently announced budget, the company looks for tougher year ahead till the GST makes its way in India in April 2016.
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Commenting on the company’s performance in the previous month, Pravin Shah, Chief Executive, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd said that the company is delighted and content as well with the performance of its export division and the HCV segment of the carmaker has also seen growth. Speaking his points on the recent budget, Mr. Pravin commented that though in union budget 2015-16, there are no such major provisions for the automotive industry, yet the overall budget can be said persuasive on growth front. The budget plans comprising the set expenditure on social and infrastructure reforms is likely to infuse positive vibes in the consumer sentiments, he added. Further on RBI’s revision in lending rates in early April, he expressed the views that automotive industry expects to see better times with the desired cut in policy rates.
As far as Mahindra’s expansion plan is concerned, the carmaker has recently launched the limited XUV 500 Xclusive Edition at Rs. 14.48 lac. The XUV 500 has already been a symbol of success in industry and its limited Xclusive edition with a number of advanced features incorporated in it will surely raise more customers’ sentiments towards Mahindra vehicles.
Source : CarDekho
