Comments
November was another bad month for passenger and commercial vehicle manufacturers, with most reporting a drop in sales over the same month last year.
Car makers blamed unfavourable economic conditions, poor consumer sentiment and the lack of a stimulus package from the Government as major reasons for the decline in sales growth.
However, two-wheelers makers continued to clock better sales even after the festival season.
Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest car maker, reported a 6 per cent drop in sales in November (85,510 units) from the corresponding month (90,882 units) last year.
The second largest company, Hyundai Motor India, reported a 4 per cent drop in sales.
“After the festival season, the market has been sluggish due to unfavourable macroeconomic factors and poor market sentiment, resulting in lower customer enquiries,” said Rakesh Srivastava, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Hyundai Motor.
Passenger vehicles
Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors also reported poor sales numbers for passenger vehicles.
While M&M declined 32 per cent year-on-year (YoY), Tata Motors saw a dip of 42 per cent from the same month last year.
“Unless some concrete measures are provided for revival, we do not foresee any immediate turnaround,” said Praveen Shah, Chief Executive (Automotive Division), M&M.
Sandeep Singh, Deputy MD and COO (Marketing and Commercial), Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said the market continued to be sluggish and was not expected to improve in the coming months.
The company saw a decline of around 2 per cent, selling 10,208 units last month, against 10,352 units in November 2012. General Motors India said its sales dropped 14 per cent YoY in November.
Riding on launches
However, Ford India and Honda Cars India continued to enjoy better sales because of the launch of the EcoSport SUV (Ford) and Amaze sedan (Honda) earlier this year.
Both companies say that customers are waiting for already booked vehicles.
Bucking the trend
Two-wheeler makers also saw sales growth during the month because of new launches and a good monsoon this year, which pulled more rural buyers into showrooms.
While the country’s top two-wheeler maker, Hero MotoCorp, recorded growth of around 6 per cent, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India saw 43 per cent growth YoY.
Only TVS Motor reported a decline — of 10 per cent — in November sales at 135,000 units.
ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.