The Hindu : Surge in car sales

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 13, 2003

Business

Business

Surge in car sales

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 12. With domestic car sales going up by 41.3 per cent in November to 58,166 units from 41,146 units in the same month last year, cumulative (April-November 2003) sales surged by 25.8 per cent.

Total cars sold between April and November in the current year reached 4.34 lakhs against 3.45 lakh units in the same period last year. According to data released today by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), sales of commercial vehicles jumped by 54.1 per cent in November to 21,860 units from 14,183 units last year.

As such, cumulative sales in this segment rose by 34.7 per cent to 1.54 lakh units from 1.14 lakh units. Car sales during the month shot up by 3.4 per cent as compared to 56,232 units sold in October this year.

The sharp increase in demand for cars has been attributed to the fact that buyers were attracted by an 8 per cent excise duty cut in the 2003-04 Union budget, which led to lower prices and availability of low-interest loans.

Indications are that various carmakers may raise prices from next month citing higher cost of raw materials such as steel.

In the utility-vehicle segment, sales went up by 33 per cent to 11,399 units in November while cumulative (April- November 2003) sales grew by 29 per cent to 88,952 units.

Sales of two-wheelers increased by a modest 5.8 per cent in November to 4.80 lakh units while cumulative sales grew by 9.3 per cent to 35.80 lakh units.

The modest growth was mainly on account of a 5 per cent rise in motorcycles' sales at 3.77 lakh units during the month under review.

The cumulative motorcycle sales increased by 13.2 per cent to 27.80 lakh units.

Sales of scooters and scooterettes went up by 9.7 per cent to 77,469 units in November while cumulative sales grew by 1.8 per cent to 5.95 lakh units.

Mopeds also posted a 6.7 per cent growth to 25,490 units in November but cumulative sales fell by 12.3 per cent to 2.05 lakh units.

Sales of multi-purpose vehicles increased by 23 per cent in November to 4,946 units while cumulative sales grew by 15 per cent to 38,373 units.

In the three-wheeler segment, sales surged by 25 per cent to 23,201 units due to a continued rise in demand for passenger and goods carriers. The cumulative sales in this segment went up by 11.7 per cent to 1,69,436 units.

In the car segment, the market leader Maruti Udyog posted a 45.4 per cent rise in sales at 31,044 units while that of second-biggest Hyundai Motor went up by 20.3 per cent to 11,056 units during the month under review.

Sales of Tata Motors surged by 44.4 per cent to 8,304 units and that of Toyota Kirloskar Motor by nearly eight-fold to 818 units.

The local subsidiaries of the U.S.-based General Motors and Ford clocked 173.6 and 94.4 per cent rise in sales at 1,245 and 1,598 units respectively.

Sales of Hindustan Motors and Honda Siel cars grew by 12.6 and 41.5 per cent to 1,214 and 1,631 units respectively.

DaimlerChrysler recorded a 3.6 per cent growth at 115 cars while Skoda Auto sold 401 cars in November.

Fiat India, however, suffered a 35.4 per cent drop at 740 units.

So far as the utility-vehicle segment was concerned, market leader Mahindra and Mahindra posted a 28.7 per cent growth at 5,489 units.

Sales of Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Tata Motors also surged by 41.2 and 32.5 per cent to 2,833 and 2,431 units respectively during the month under review.

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