After a tough year, domestic car sales in the last month of 2011 have gone up for most companies barring Maruti Suzuki.
Higher sales came as a surprise as December usually sees a drop in sales as carmakers reduce stocks.
The growth may be attributed to the high amount of discounts on offer for petrol cars. Diesel cars are also high on demand because of the cheaper price of the fuel.
Maruti's dip
Market leader Maruti saw sales dip for the seventh month in a row with a 13 per cent fall in December.
The carmaker had a week-long maintenance shutdown at its plant in the month.
Maruti's sales in the premium hatch (Swift, Ritz, Estilo) and sedan segments (SX4, Dzire, Kizashi) grew, though in its largest-volume compact segment (M800, Alto, WagonR, A-star), it fell 16 per cent (38,593 units).
Mr Shashank Srivastava, Maruti's Chief General Manager for Marketing, said that the lower sales in the month follows the slowdown in the auto market.
“Our retail sales are doing very good, though wholesales were lower.
“We could have done even better volumes in Swift, Dzire and Ritz if we had more diesel engines available as the waiting is still quite high,” he said.
Hyundai, Tata rise
Rival Hyundai saw sales in the month going up 13 per cent, while exports decreased by 8 per cent to 19,433 units.
Tata Motors' domestic sales rose 47 per cent. Sales of the Tata Nano increased 29 per cent (7,466 units), while Indica and Indigo range sales rose 57 per cent (9,307 units) and 32 per cent (6,888 units), respectively. Tata Motors' utility vehicle sales were up 90 per cent at 5,255 units.
Mahindra saw car and utility vehicle sales rise 24 per cent, while General Motors and Ford registered seven per cent and 39 per cent (5,979 units) sales increases.
Nissan sold 1,596 units in the month, while Toyota Kirloskar's sales more than doubled to 15,948 units.
Tight market
Mr. P. Balendran, Vice-President, General Motors India said, “We have been able to sustain the growth primarily due to the encouraging response to Chevrolet Beat. Other carlines like Spark, Cruze and Tavera have also generated substantial volumes for the company. We expect the market to remain tight for at least a couple of months to come.”
Two-wheelers
Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto both saw sales going up eight per cent in the month. For Bajaj, it was the highest-ever sales for any December.