Reflecting the sluggish trend witnessed by the automobile sector in 1996-97, the sales of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) during the year dropped by 5.5 per cent to 76,140 units from 80,555 units in the previous year.
However, the sales of passenger cars, utility vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs) saw a modest growth. Passenger car sales rose 18.8 per cent during the period to 374,829 units from the 315,471 units sold in 1995-96.
HCVs, too, witnessed an 18.9 per cent growth in sales in 1996-97. During the year, 140,986 units were sold against 119,289 units in the previous year. The utility vehicles market witnessed the maximum growth during the period with sales growing 30.72 per cent to 132,639 units from 101,466 units in 1995-96.
The sales growth in the passenger car segment was mostly on account of the entry of Fiat Uno, Opel Astra, Ford Mahindra and Tata Mercedes into the domestic market. During the year 3,606 Ford Escorts were sold, while the sales of Astra stood at 7,507 units. Fiat Uno sold 1,370 units while the sales of Mercedes stood at 1,370 units.
The sales of Daewoo Cielo, too, improved during 1996-97, the first full year of its operations, to 16,866 units against 9,355 units sold in the previous year. Pal Peugeot sales also rose during the period to 2,614 units as against 559 units in 1995-96.
Maruti Udyog continued its dominance in the passenger car segment with a market share of 67 per cent, showing an improvement over the previous years 64.4 per cent. Maruti sold 250,886 cars and 46,933 vans in 1996-97 against 203,041 cars and 39,470 vans sold in 1995-96.
However, Premier Padmini and Pal 118 NE sales fell substantially during the year, mostly on account of the labour problems that the company witnessed.
While Padmini sales dropped to 8,716 units from 19,163 units, that of 118 NE, too, dropped to 5,032 units from 9,665 units. Hindustan Motors and Tata Estate\Sierra sales, too, dipped during the year from 27,803 units and 6,415 units to 25,827 units and 4,102 units respectively.
In the LCV segment, M&M sales dropped from 6,329 units to 5,699 units. Similarly Bajaj Matador, DCM Dyna Toyota, Swaraj Mazda and Leyland Chital sales dropped from 10,433, 1498, 3,775, 2,110 units to 6,183, 618, 3396 and 1532 units respectively. Telco sales, too, dipped in the 407 and 608\709 categories from 32,778 units and 15,896 units to 31,949 units and 15,865 units respectively. Only the Bajaj Traveller, Tata Mobile 207 and Eicher Canter managed to improve their sales volumes in this segment. While Bajaj Traveller sales rose to 1648 units from 1519 units, the sales of Tata Mobile and Eicher improved from 935 units and 5282 units to 3,101 units and 6,149 units respectively.
In the HCV segment, Tata sales improved by 20 per cent to 104,086 units from 86,865 units during the year while that of Ashok Leyland improved to 36,900 units from 32,424 units, during the year.
In the utility vehicles segment Tata Sumo sales zoomed by 81.33 per cent, to 41,304 units from 22,778 units while M&M, too, rose by a healthy 22.17 per cent to 68,825 units from 56,334 units. Maruti Gypsy and Bajaj Trax witnessed modest gains as their sales improved to 7,009 units and 12,899 units from 6,972 units and 12,702 units respectively. Hindustan Motors, however, lost ground as its sales dipped marginally to 2,602 units in 1996-97 from 2,680 units in 1995-96.
