Diwali Brightens Auto Sales In October; Hyundai Outperforms Maruti
Always billed as the
blockbuster period for automobile sales, the Dussehra-Diwali spread has been
no less exciting this time too. But it seems the country's number two
carmaker has pipped the leader on capitalising on it. Cumulative sales at Hyundai
went up 4.3% to 63,372 units. And if you discount exports, even domestic
sales have established a new all-time high record - a year-on-year growth of
6.4%. Hyundai saw its sales drivers - Creta, i20 and Grand i10 continue to
perform, while even the new Elantra has contributed better than expected
bookings since its launch at the end of August.
By
contrast market leader Maruti Suzuki registered a growth of just 2.2%
year-on-year in the domestic market by selling 1.23 lakh units as against 1.21
lakh units in October 2015. The utes dominated that growth, with the Vitara
Brezza, S-Cross, and Ertiga selling over 18,000 units. But there has been a
sharp drop of almost 10% in Maruti's bread and butter segment of compact hatchbacks
- with sales of the Alto and WagonR declining to 33,929 units (37,595 units in
October 2015). Even the more premium compacts - Baleno, Celerio, Swift and Swift
Dzire saw a marginal dip of 1.8% to 50,116 units. It was the Baleno that shored
up the numbers even as the ageing Swift lost sales to it and the Vitara Brezza.
The taxi segment Dzire Tour model also saw a massive drop in volume at 2481
units - a staggering 27.4% fall.
It
has been a strong festive sales season as expected. And the momentum should
carry on through to the year-end says Abdul Majeed, Partner at Price Waterhouse,
"Passenger car sales continue to grow. This is backed by positive customer
sentiments and better in hand cash flows to support their discretionary spends.
Overall we should see good growth this year in all the vehicle
categories."
Two
other new models have also helped their respective brands come back from the
brink - the Tata Tiago and Volkswagen Ameo. The German carmaker had launched
the petrol Ameo in June while the diesel model had only arrived at the very of
September. Sales in October were up 70% at 5534 units, as compared to 3255
units in the corresponding month last year. VW expects the growth trend to
continue. VW will launch the Polo GTI, Passat GT plugin hybrid and the Tiguan
over the next few months.
Meanwhile
Tata Motors is continuing to see a smart bounceback thanks to the Tiago.
Overall sales in October stood at 52,813 units - up 21%. But it was the
passenger car division that led the growth clocking its highest sales in the
last four years at 16,311 units - that's a smart growth of 28%. So far this
fiscal, passenger vehicles have registered a 15% uptick at Tata, by selling
88,976 units in April-October 2016 as compared to 77,465 units in the same
period last year. The company's Commercial Vehicles business also recorded its
highest-ever monthly sales at 30,169 units, up 15%.
The
Datsun redi-GO also continues to aid Nissan's growth in India that reported a
growth of over 88% in domestic sales.
Source : Diwali
Brightens Auto Sales In October; Hyundai Outperforms Maruti