Rides of March: Car, two-wheeler sales up

The domestic automobile companies closed the last month of the fiscal 2015-16 with record sales numbers led by Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) in passenger cars segment and Hero MotoCorp in two-wheelers.

However, some of the companies could not drive the sales during the month under review in both passenger cars and two-wheelers.

For example, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) took a hit because of protests by workers at its Tapukara (Rajasthan) plant.

In the passenger cars segment, MSIL sold around 1.19 lakh units in March up 15 per cent against around 1.04 lakh units in March last year.

For the full year, the company recorded highest ever sales, it said.

Similarly, second largest passenger car manufacturer, Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) sold 41,201 units during the month, up four per cent against 39,525 units in the corresponding month last year.

HMIL also recorded highest ever sales for 2015-16 year-on-year.

“Hyundai for 2015-16 achieved an all-time highest volume of 4,84,324 units with 15 per cent yearly growth with highest-ever market share of 17 per cent plus on the strong performance of models such as Creta, Elite i20 and Grand i10 with many innovations on product and channel under the Vision of Experience Hyundai,” said Rakesh Srivastava, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, HMIL.

Ford India also garnered 44 per cent year-on-year growth (YoY) during March with 7,560 units against 5,253 units in March last year. Home-grown company Mahindra & Mahindra also managed to get more than 20 per cent sales with 26,885 units last month (22,183 units).

However, second home-grown company and the largest automobile company by revenue, Tata Motors’ sales declined by 44 per cent YoY to 8,454 units in March (15,039 units).

In the two-wheeler segment, Hero MotoCorp sold more than six lakh units during the month up 14 per cent against 5.32 lakh units in March last year.

“The industry witnessed mixed fortunes in the last financial year with sales looking up in the second-half of the year. Timely measures by the government and a good monsoon will be essential in sustaining this positive trend.

“The journey from here promises to be even more exciting as we gear up to launch our in-house developed product,” said Pawan Munjal, Chairman, Managing Director and CEO, Hero MotoCorp.

In the commercial vehicle segment, most of the companies faired well and recorded positive numbers.

“Commercial vehicles sales continue to grow owing to increase in overall economic activity and due to replacement demand as well as demand for new vehicles,” Abdul Majeed, Partner, Price Waterhouse, said.

However, growth in the Indian automotive sector has not been up to the market potential, especially in the last three months, because of various reasons such as ban on bigger diesel vehicles by the Supreme Court, he added.