Maruti & Hyundai Register Minor Drop in Sales for January

Maruti and Hyundai, both have reported a dip in sales for January 2016. The reason might be the price hike, as many buyers bought the car last year so as to save up to Rs. 12,000. Where Maruti has faced a decline of 2.6%, Hyundai has registered a minor 1.23% decline. Maruti in January, increased price of all its cars up to Rs 4,000 and Baleno had faced a price hike of upto Rs 12,000. Hyundai announced a price hike of up to Rs. 30,000 which was to be applicable from January 2016. Moreover, this news comes at a time when Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) announced that the sales of vehicles have been increasing for fourteenth straight months. This report came in December 2015. About 172,671 units were sent to dealerships from the manufacturers.

Maruti managed to sell 1,13,606 units in January against 1,16,606 units in the same month last year. This is an overall figure combining imports and exports. The domestic scenario has seen a rise of 0.8% as 1,06,383 units were sold against 1,05,559 units in January 2015. Sales of utility vehicles, which include Gypsy, Grand Vitara and Ertiga, has also been increased by 26.2% as 8,114 units were sold in January 2016 as compared to 6,432 units in January 2015. Maruti stated, “domestic sales would have been higher, but lesser number of working days in January 2016 impacted overall production and dispatch," as a reason for the decline. Exports dipped 34.6% as only 7,223 units were sold overseas compared to 11,047 units in January 2015.

Hyundai sold 44,230 units in January 2016 as compared to 44,783 units in the same timeframe last year. Domestic sales were recorded at 38,016 units against 34,780 units in January 2015, resulting in an increase of 9.3%. Exports for Hyundai also suffered as the company sold 6,214 units in January 2015 against 10,003 units in the same period in 2015. This is a 37.87% decline.

Rakesh Srivastava, senior Vice-President (Sales and Marketing), HMIL said “The growth momentum of last year continued built by strong performance of products like Grand, Creta and i20 Elite/Active," Commenting on the lineup for Auto Expo, he said, "We look forward to presenting the Hyundai Experience at the Auto Expo through our products and technology towards meeting the growing aspirations of the customers."

Also Read: Maruti S-Cross Prices Dropped By Over Rs. 2 Lacs!