Festive boost: Carmakers report robust domestic sales in September

Maruti Suzuki's sales up of 9%, Tata Motors' 25%, Hyundai's 17% as people go for automobile purchases during the festive season

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Sunday reported a 9.3 per cent increase in total sales and a 10.3 per cent rise in domestic sales in September this year. Boosted by festive demand, the company's overall sales during the month stoods at 163,071 units, and domestic sales rose to 151,400 units from 137,321 units in September 2016. 

While Hyundai Motor India Ltd's domestic sales grew 17.4 per cent to 50,028 units, Tata Motors reported a 25 per cent increase to 53,965 units during the month, against 43,031 in September 2016.
 
Hyundai, which had sold 149,143 units overall in the same month last year, saw its sales growing mainly on account of the compact segment – the Swift, Estilo, Dzire and Baleno – which witnessed a jump of 44.7 per cent during the month to 72,804 units, against 50,324 units a year ago.

 

Hyundai’s domestic sales grew from 42,605 units in September 2016. Its director (sales & marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said September sales were boosted by success of the newly launched Verna. Over 6,000 units of the mid-sized sedan were sold during last month, he added.
 
Tata Motors head-commercial vehicle business unit, Girish Wagh said sales were boosted by a strong customer acceptance of SCR technology and a continued ramp-up of BS4 vehicles production. The company's overall commercial vehicle sales grew 29 per cent at 36,679 units in the reporting period, he added. 

As for Maruti Suzuki, the sales of its mini segment cars, including Alto and WagonR, declined 13.3 per cent during the month on a year-on-year basis to 38,479 units from 44,395 units a year earlier. The sales of its mid-sized sedan Ciaz dropped 14.4 per cent to 5,603 units during the month.

 
The company said that the sales of its utility vehicles, including Gypsy, Grand Vitara, Ertiga, S-Cross and compact SUV Vitara Brezza, rose 8 per cent to 19,900 units from 18,423 units in September 2016.
 
The sales of vans -- Omni and Eeco -- increased marginally to 13,735 units, against 13,618 units in the year-ago period.
 
Maruti Suzuki’s exports in September were down 1.3 per cent to 11,671 units, compared with 11,822 units in the same month last year.