Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) and Hyundai Motor India on Friday announced their best ever annual sales in the fiscal ended March 31, while Mahindra & Mahindra and Honda Cars India (HCIl) posted marginal sales growth in 2015-16.
For the 2015-16 fiscal, MSI posted sales of 14,29,248 units, a growth of 10.6 per cent. This comprises highest ever domestic sales of 13,05,351 units and 1,23,897 units of exports.
“We posted record (domestic) sales in 2015-16. While the industry grew by around 7 per cent, we grew 11.5 per cent during the fiscal,” MSI Executive Director Marketing and Sales R S Kalsi told news agency PTI.
Rival Hyundai Motor India ltd saw its sales rise 15.1 per cent in 2015-16 at 4,84,324 units compared to 4,20,668 units in 2014-15.
HMIl Senior Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said the company achieved the best ever yearly sales due to strong performance of models like Creta, Elite i20 and Grand i10.
Homegrown utility vehicles major Mahindra & Mahindra’s domestic sales during the FY16 rose by 5 per cent to 4,58,065 units compared with 4,34,568 units in 2014-15.
M&M Chief Executive (auto division) Pravin Shah said the last financial year was significant for the firm considering the number of new product launches which were well received by the customers leading to a positive growth both in domestic and overseas markets.
“Going forward, we hope to see good opportunity with our wide product portfolio. Further, the likely softening of interest rates in the upcoming RBI monetary policy will help the automotive industry to maintain its growth momentum in FY2017,” he added.
Honda Cars India ltd (HCIl) said in the fiscal ended March 31, 2016, its domestic sales were at 1,92,059 units as against 1,89,062 units in 2014–15, up 2 per cent.
Commenting on company’s sales performance, HCIl Senior Vice President – Marketing & Sales Jnaneswar Sen said: “Year 2015-16 was an eventful and rewarding year for HCIl. We continued our growth journey in the market making this year as 4th consecutive year of annual sales growth.”
On the outlook, he said: “The new fiscal year holds tremendous opportunity for our further growth as we will enhance our product line-up with the launch of new models and expand our dealer network.”
He said with the upcoming launch of Honda BR-V, the company will will mark its entry into a new product segment.
In March, MSI’s domestic sales increased by 14.6 per cent during the month to 1,18,895 units as against 1,03,719 units in the same month last year. Sales of mini segment cars, including, Alto and WagonR,however declined 8.7 per cent to 36,678 units in the month from 40,159 units in the year-ago month.
The company said sales of the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz, Dzire and Baleno increased 20.9 per cent to 46,786 units in March this year as against 38,710 units in the same month last year.
Rival Hyundai Motor India (HMIl) sold 41,201 units last month in the domestic market as compared with 39,525 units in March 2015, up 4.2 per cent.
Utility vehicle major Mahindra and Mahindra saw its domestic sales rise up 19 per cent during the last month at 48,967 units compared with 41,105 units in March 2015.
Similarly, Renault India reported 160 per cent jump in its domestic sales at 12,424 units in March. It had sold 4,782 units in the corresponding month last year.
“In a short span of time, we have exponentially grown our reach in terms of sales and network expansion... This month, we recorded our best ever sales figures in India,” Renault India Operations Country CEO and Managing Director Sumit Sawhney said.