After Feb spurt, car sales slow down in March

Domestic sales of passenger cars grew 4.1 per cent in March, ending the hope that the industry has gone back on the fast track after the heady sales growth of February.

In February, sales of passenger cars grew by over 21 per cent. Car sales of the leading automakers, which include Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra, Honda-Siel, Tata Motors and Fiat, went up to 152,409 units in March this year from 146,338 units in March 2008.

Maruti Suzuki, which today officially declared its numbers, saw its domestic sales grow 15 per cent. It saw robust demand for its A2 models like Swift and A-Star and the midsize sedan, Dzire, selling 73,855 units in March. This is a continuation of the double-digit growth managed by the company in January this year.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) was the second company to post strong sales for March this year, based on the roaring success of its newly launched utility vehicle, Xylo, which has a waiting period of around six to eight weeks. The firm sold a record 19,973 units of utility vehicles in March, 30 per cent more than the previous year.

Fiat India, on the back of the launch of new models, saw its sales go up nearly three-fold, from 450 in March 2008 to 1,817 in March this year.

Industry executives say March sales for this year should not be compared with the sales for the same month last year. “Since the budget was announced in February 2008, customers postponed buying cars in anticipation of excise duty cuts. Thus, the bunched demand in February was carried out in March last year, which constitutes a high base. A year-on-year comparison isn’t possible,” said Vaishali Jajoo, analyst, Angel Broking.

While Hyundai’s sales dipped by 15 per cent to 24,754 units in March, its exports rose by 22 per cent, to 21,406 units. The same trend of falling sales was witnessed by Tata Motors. Despite good sales for Indica Vista and the improved Indigo and Sumo Grande, its March sales dipped by 4 per cent to 23,680 units.

Meanwhile, Bajaj Auto reported 14.40 per cent fall in its motorcycle sales in March at 1,32,210 units against 1,54,443 units in the same month last year.