The Hindu : Business : Auto sales in top gear in July

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Tuesday, Aug 03, 2010
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Auto sales in top gear in July

Special Correspondent

The trend indicates that the automobile industry will clock record-breaking sales in 2010

NEW DELHI: Indian carmakers registered impressive sales figure in July this year, thanks to successive launches of interesting models. Be it largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki or its competitors Hyundai, Tata Motors, Ford and General Motors, all managed to record good sales growth last month. Similarly, impressive performance by luxury carmakers and bike manufacturers also indicate that the Indian auto industry will clock record-breaking sales in 2010.

In July, Maruti Suzuki India reported a 29.18 per cent jump in its sales at just over 1-lakh units as compared to the same period last year. This is the second time in this fiscal that Maruti Suzuki's monthly sales figure has crossed 1-lakh-mark. While its sales in the domestic market stood at 90,114 units, up by 33.45 per cent, its exports could only grow by 1.87 per cent at 10,743 units.

Similarly, Tata Motors reported impressive sales figures in the passenger vehicle sales at 27,864 (up 62 per cent), company's highest-ever. In July, the company sold 9,000 units of world's cheapest car ‘Nano', while its exports went up by 73 per cent to 4,241 units. On the other hand, Hyundai Motor India could achieve a growth of just 10.7 per cent in July this year at 50,411 units — 28,811 units in domestic market (24.2 per cent growth) and 21,600 units in exports (down 3.3 per cent). “The recently launched Verna Transform along with the tried and trusted Accent helped us consolidate our position in the mid-segment,” HMIL Director (Marketing and Sales) Arvind Saxena said.

However, the U.S.-based carmaker Ford is having interesting times since it launched its small car Figo. Last month, its sales went up four-times to 8,739 units as compared to 2,146 units in the same period last year. Since its launch in March, the company has received 29,000 bookings for Figo so far, while it has sold almost 47,000 vehicles this year.

Similarly, General Motors also saw its sales go up by 45 per cent in July at 7,124 units, mainly due to its small cars Spark, Beat and sedan Cruze. Another interesting addition to the list of small cars last month was small car Micra from Nissan Motor India. In Just 15 days, 1,000 units of Micra have been sold.

In the luxury segment, Toyota Kirloskar Motor reported a 36.51 per cent jump in sales at 6,835 units in the month under review, while Honda Siel Cars India was the only company to report decline in its sales at 4,685 units.

“We are very happy with the consistent growth in sales, especially the response that the Corolla Altis Diesel has got since its launch on July 21.

“We have already received 1,035 bookings in 11 days and have dispatched 620 cars to our dealers across the country,” said TKM Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) Sandeep Singh.

In the bike segment, top two companies — Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto — reported impressive sales figures.

While Hero Honda sold over 4.27-lakh bikes in July, up 16.60 per cent, Bajaj Auto saw its sales go up by 66 per cent to 2.79-lakh units.

Hero Honda recorded more than 4-lakh despatch in sales in a single month for the third consecutive time.

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