PUNE: Sales at Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car maker, and Mahindra and Mahindra, India’s biggest utility vehicle maker, on Wednesday bounced back at 2.5 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively, in December.
However, sales at South Korean car maker Hyundai, India’s second biggest car maker, Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Honda Cars dropped at 9.8 per cent, 10 per cent, 45 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively, last month.
Car despatches from factory gates to dealerships are counted as sales in India.
After a gap, Maruti reported positive sales growth at 2.5 per cent in December. In the last 12 months from January to December, it had last recorded growth in October, which came after seven straight months of decline, but was down 3.3 per cent in November 2019.
Sales at Mahindra jumped 4 per cent at 15,691 units last month compared with 15,091 units sold in the same month last year. “Our performance in the month of December is as per year-end sales outlook and currently we are also comfortable with our overall stock levels. As we get into the new year, we are fully equipped to roll out our BS-VI products and have taken all requisite measures for a smooth transition over the next three months,” Veejay Ram Nakra, chief of sales and marketing, automotive division at Mahindra, M&M, said.
However, sales at Hyundai dropped at 9.8 per cent at 37,953 units last month, down from 42,093 units it sold in the same month last year. New launches such as Venue, Santro and Grand i10 Nios could not arrest the decline in wholesale volumes.
“The year 2019 has been a challenging year for the Indian automotive industry,” Tarun Garg, director, sales, marketing & service at Hyundai Motor India, said.
Sales at Tata Motors, India’s biggest automaker by revenue, also went down by 10 per cent at 12,785 units last month compared with 14,260 units it sold last year.
“Our focus in December has been to drive retail and minimise the network stock in order to facilitate a smooth transition to BS-VI,” Mayank Pareek, president, passenger vehicles at Tata Motors, said.
Sales at Honda Cars declined 36 per cent at 8,412 units last month. “Our volumes in December have been on expected lines. In order to avoid any leftover BS-IV stocks, we channelised our resources more towards liquidating them,” Rajesh Goel, senior vice president and director of sales and marketing at Honda Cars India, said.
Sales at Toyota Kirloskar Motor dropped 45 per cent at 6,544 units in December compared with 11,836 units it sold in the same month previous year.
“Currently, we don't cater to the entire market with our products, although the segments we represent have shown de-growth of around 22 per cent, yet our de-growth as compared to the segment has been much lesser,” Naveen Soni, senior vice president, sales and service at Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said.
New entrant MG Motor India, which has only one model, MG Hector SUV, sold 3,021 units in December. Since July 2019, when the carmaker started deliveries of its vehicles in India, it has recorded total sales of 15,930 units. Its second vehicle in India–the MG ZS EV, India’s first pure electric internet SUV–will go on sale in January 2020.
