Maruti Udyog has been able to retain its lead by clocking a 4.2 per cent increase in sales during the first four months of this fiscal despite the decline in total car sales by 1.5 per cent during this period.
Maruti sales grew to 104,988 cars in April-July 1998 compared with 100,768 cars sold during the same period last fiscal.
However, overall car sales declined to 124,849 from 126,760 last year.
The company also fared very well in July 1998 in comparison to other carmakers.
The company sold 30,603 cars in July which accounts for 82 per cent of the total cars sold that month. Of this, Maruti 800 sales stood at 16,713, Omni at 5,171, M-1000 at 17, Esteem at 1,866 and Zen at 6,836.
Except Maruti, nearly every other carmaker saw sales shrink in April-July 1998 from the same period last year.
The other exception being Honda Siel which managed to sell 3,377 Honda City cars during April-July this year. In fact, Honda City has grabbed a large portion of Opel Astra and Ford Escort market shares.
Sales of Daewoo Motor (India) fell only 3.3 per cent during the period under consideration: 3,404 Cielos were sold during Aril-July this year as compared to 3,520 during the previous corresponding period. However, July 1998 sales of Cielo have been encouraging, the figure being 875.
The most significant decline has been in sales of Opel Astra and Ford Escort which registered a decline of 61 per cent and 58.6 per cent, respectively.
The decline in PAL Puegeot by 86 per cent was expected since the company has been passing through a rather difficult patch. The company was able to sell only 360 cars in April-July 1998 as compared to 2,565 cars sold during the previous year corresponding period.
Hindustan Motors, whose range of models include the Ambassador, Contessa and Isuzu 1800, actually registered a net decline of 14 per cent during the period.
The company's total sales in April-July 1998 were 6,179 cars as compared to 7,199 during April-July 1997.
