Country’s carmakers are banking on the Auto Expo at Greater Noida to kickstart sales in the domestic market after the New Year began on a sluggish note for most of them. Maruti Suzuki, Toyota, Tata Motors and Honda cars witnessed little growth and some, even decline in their car sales figures in January.
The passenger car sales figures of all carmakers put together witnessed only 1.4 per cent increase this January compared to a year ago.
While Hyundai Motor India, Mahindra & Mahindra and Volkswagen clocked high single-digit growth, the fear of declining sales looms large going forward making this year’s Auto Expo even more relevant for carmakers.
Maruti Suzuki India reported a 2.6 per cent decline in total sales in January (1,13,606 units versus 1,16,606 units in January 2015). Its domestic sales showed only a marginal increase of 0.8 per cent (1,06,383 units as against 1,05,559 units in January 2015). Sales of passenger cars declined 1.4 per cent, the country’s largest carmaker said blaming the sluggish numbers to fewer working days in January 2016 due to planned plant shutdown for three days. Maruti saw sales in mini car segment — Alto and WagonR — decline by 4.3 per cent; and in premium hatchback — Swift, Ritz, Celerio, Baleno and Dzire — by 2.8 per cent. Now Maruti is banking on its Vitara Brezza — unveiled at the Auto Expo — to boost its domestic sales. The careis expected to hit the markets by March-April.
Tata Motors reported bad January figures as sales of passenger vehicles in the domestic market dipped by 18 per cent — 10,728 units versus 13,047 in January 2015. The company is now looking at some of its new and upgraded cars at the Auto Expo to give a boost to sales. It is showcasing Nexon subcompact SUV, Hexa crossover SUV, and Safari Storme Tuff among other cars at the expo.
Honda Cars India reported a 6.52 per cent dip in domestic sales — 17,135 units in January 2016 vs 18,331 units sold in January 2015. The worst affected is the Toyota Kirloskar Motor that sold only 8,793 units in the domestic market (against 12,650 in January 2015), a sharp decline of 30.49 per cent. Toyota blames it on the recent ban on registration of diesel cars with engine capacity of more than 2000 cc in Delhi and NCR.
Hyundai India’s domestic sales jumped 9.3 per cent to 38,016 units (against 34,780 units in January 2015) led by strong performance of products such as Grand, Creta and i20 Elite/Active. At the Expo, Hyundai re-introduced the popular Tucson SUV to fill the gap between Creta and Santa Fe.
Mahindra & Mahindra saw its domestic sales grow 9.84 per cent to 40,693 units last month (versus 37,045 units in January 2015) while German auto major Volkswagen saw 7.6 per cent rise in sales in India at 4,018 units (up from 3,734 units last January).
BW Reporters
Ashish Sinha is an experienced business journalist who has covered FMCG, auto, infrastructure, tourism, telecom among several other beats. Ashish has keen interest in the regulatory scenario impacting different sectors. He writes on aviation, railways, post and telegraph, infrastructure, defence, media & entertainment, among a wide variety of other subjects.
