Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India made the most out of the festive season, posting its first growth in domestic passenger vehicles sales after seven months in October, while other firms including Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra and Toyota managed to arrest a continued decline in vehicle offtake.
Tata Motors and Honda Cars India also managed to improve sales in October from preceding months despite posting high double digit declines during the month. Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) posted a growth of 4.5 per cent in its domestic wholesales at 1,44,277 units in October as against 1,38,100 units in the same period last year. The company’s sales in the domestic market last month were largely driven by increase in offtake of compact segment cars and utility vehicles.
Sales of compact segment, including models such as Swift, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno and Dzire, grew 15.9 per cent to 75,094 units last month as against 64,789 units in October last year. Similarly, utility vehicle sales grew by 11.3 per cent to 23,108 units in October as against 20,764 units in the same period of last year.
MSI Executive Director Shashank Srivastava said the company has taken various measures including steps to reduce cost of vehicle acquisition and improving finance options to customers by initiating discussions with banks.