Carmakers have reason to rejoice ahead of the festival season. In a reversal of the sales slide of the past few months, September saw a strong growth on new model launches and the pent-up demand from the earlier months.
Though market leader Maruti Suzuki saw a 17.2 per cent sales drop on the back of a month-long strike at its second plant at Manesar, most other carmakers beat the negative market sentiment arising from rising interest rates and fuel prices.
“The new launches helped, while a lot of demand has also shifted to diesel cars because of the increased difference with petrol prices. There was also a lot of pent-up demand from July and August,” said Mr Abdul Majeed, Auto Practice Leader at PwC India.
Major players such as Hyundai and Tata Motors posted a double-digit growth, though the latter saw a 47 per cent decline (2,936 units) in Nano compact sales. While Jaguar Land Rover domestic sales increased, Indica range sales were also up 64 per cent at 10,282 units.
“We will launch our much awaited compact car Eon this month. In spite of a sluggish market we expect the Eon to boost our sales and increase market share,” Mr Arvind Saxena, Director, Marketing and Sales, Hyundai Motor India, said.
Mahindra & Mahindra saw an 11 per cent sales jump in the month, while Toyota Kirloskar's sales doubled on the back of its new Etios range. Volkswagen's sales were up 39 per cent (6,845 units), while Ford sold 7,801 units domestically. Honda Siel, however, saw a 38 per cent drop to 4,758 units.