Maruti July Sales goes high to 1.15 lakh cars

The lower base effect of July 2008 translated into healthy sales growth in July this year, as car makers posted increase in sales of 31% to 1.15 lakh cars last month in the domestic market over the same month last year, when sales dipped 1.7% to 87,724 cars. As per the reports from Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the auto industry is likely to perform well for the next few months in the domestic market, with strong demand expected during the upcoming festive season. Car sales were primarily led by Maruti Suzuki India, whose sales jumped 31% to 60,012 cars and the No. 2 car maker Hyundai recorded a 54% increase in sales to 23,193 cars. Mahindra  sales soared to 74% and reached 11,660 units last month. The market is growing as the economy is growing strong, but the ongoing drought could play spoilsport,” said Mahantesh Sabarad, an auto analyst with Centrum Broking. Tata Motors sales rose 21% to 14,537 units in July, while Honda Siel Cars dispatches rose 20% to 4,827 units last month compared with 4,006 units sold in the same month last year. General Motors India, the Indian subsidiary of troubled American carmaker General Motors, saw sales drop 16% to 3,729. The similar growth story in sales was seen for the commercial vehicle (CV) makers, which after a gap of 11 months, posted an increase of 10% to 37,624 vehicles in July against 34,325 vehicles in the year-ago period. The growth came largely from light commercial vehicles, which grew 28% to 21,486 units in July, while medium and heavy truck sales fell 8% to 16,138 vehicles in July over last year. The CV segment only witnessed a small 1.93% growth in July 2008 and had started declining from August last year.

The two-wheeler segment also saw growth as market leader Hero Honda’s motorcycle sales surged 31% to 3.42 lakh units though rival Bajaj Auto’s sales went down to 4% to 1.09 lakh units. Honda Motorcycle’s bike sales went high to 53% to 38,758 units while TVS Motors saw a decline of 19% to 31,916 bikes. Export of passenger vehicles grew 21% to 33,789 in July. Exports led by huge demand from Europe helped car makers generate impressive growth, and this was largely driven by Maruti Suzuki India, whose overseas sales grew 88% to 10,432 units last month. The country’s largest car exporter HMI reported 6% increase in exports at 22,350 cars in the same period. However, car exports from India could suffer if the scrappage incentives extended by several European governments are not revived and extended beyond September this year. In nutshell, the automobile industry has seen a cumulative 21% increase in sales to 9.41 lakh vehicles in July of 2009.