Amid a demand slowdown in the domestic market, major Indian car makers reported a decline in their November sales. While Maruti Suzuki India and Hyundai Motor India struggled in the domestic markets, Honda Cars India and Ford announced a healthy rise in their net sales mainly backed by their successful models Amaze and EcoSport respectively.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) posted a decline of 5.9 per cent in its domestic sales to 85,510 units. Company’s compact cars segment comprising of Swift, Estilo and Ritz also fell sharply by 24 per cent to 18,122 units during the last month. The only sign of hope came from its mini passenger car segment comprising of Maruti 800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR which managed to gain 3.7 per cent and stood at 38,040 units. In all country’s largest car manufacturer registered a fall of 10.7 per cent at 92,140 units in its net sales in the last month.
Similarly, rival Hyundai Motor India limited’s (HMIl) net sales also slid by 10.9 per cent to 49,681 units mainly due to the sharp fall of nearly 23 per cent in its exports. Company’s domestic sales also fell by 3.6 per cent at 33,501 units during the month. Commenting on the sales, Rakesh Srivastava, Senior Vice President (Sales and Marketing), HMIl said, “After the festival season, market has been sluggish due to unfavourable macro-economic factors and low market sentiments resulting lower customer enquiries.”
General Motors India also reported 14.14 per cent decline in sales at 6,214 units in November against 7,238 units in the same month last year. Expecting the market to remain sluggish in the coming months, company’s Vice President P Balendran said, “Unless the government offers a stimulus package to the struggling automobile industry, the market is unlikely to see any upturn before a new government assumes office after elections next year.”
On the other hand, November turned out to be really good for Honda Cars India limited (HCIl) as its domestic sales increased by over two-and-half fold to 9,332 units as against 3,711 units in the same month last year. Commenting on the sales performance, HCIl Senior Vice President (Marketing & Sales) Jnaneswar Sen said, “led by strong demand for Honda Amaze, HCIl has experienced robust sales month after month since April 2013.” During the previous month, the company sold 1,712 units of its hatchback Brio and 7,598 units of the compact sedan Amaze.
Apart from HCIl, Ford’s net sales also grew by 19 per cent to 12,050 units against 10,155 units in the same period of the previous year as its domestic sales increased by 33 per cent to 7,909. The company had sold 5,944 units in the domestic market during November last year.
While most of the four wheeler manufacturers struggled, two wheeler makers posted better sales figures in November. Country’s largest two wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp reported 5.61 per cent rise in total sales at 5,30,530 units for November this year as compared to 5,02,305 units in the same month last year. In its official statement, company gave credit to their various strategic initiatives which helped to achieve robust volumes despite the sluggish market environment.
Just like its car division, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) also outperformed its peers as its total sales grew by 43 per cent jump to 3,19,080 units against 2,23,145 units in the same month last year. While the company’s motorcycle sales registered a rise of 39 per cent, its scooter business grew by 46 per cent, HMSI said in a statement.
Yamaha also saw a slight gain of 6.5 per cent in its domestic sales to 39,777 units as against 37,344 units in the same month last year. While most of the two wheeler companies posted gains, Chennai based TVS Motor’s total sales dipped 5.77 per cent to 1,61,908 units. Company’s domestic sales dipped 9.88 per cent to 1,35,218 units from 1,50,056 units while its exports rose to 20,386 units from 16,727 units in the year ago month.
On Sunday, Tata Motors’ domestic sales in November this year fell sharply by over 40 per cent to 37,192 units along with Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) which reported a 22 per cent decline in its domestic sales at 36,261 units