Utility vehicles save the day

Automobile companies are banking on the festive season to give them the much-needed fuel for growth. Sales were subdued in July and August as higher interest rates, lack of credit and inflation kept buyers away. September was better — but only marginally.

Sales of India’s biggest car maker, the Rs 18,142 crore Maruti Suzuki, grew just 2.5 per cent in the home market. While Swift and Swift DZire continued to drive sales, Wagon-R, Zen and Alto remained laggards. But the numbers look much better when compared with the 11 per cent decline in sales in the previous month. Analysts say sales could pick up sharply after the much- anticipated launch of the A-star, provided of course the company can price it competitively enough.

Hyundai Motor is, however, on the fast track with September sales volumes increasing 24 per cent y-o-y, thanks to the performance of i10. The Korean car company thus continued the good run it had in August when it posted sales growth of 34 per cent, albeit on a low base.

Tata Motors, however, continues to disappoint. Passenger vehicles sales volume declined by 2.5 per cent y-o-y in September largely on account of Indica. The company believes things will turn better once Indica Vista picks up pace. The company’s latest offering now has a waiting list of four to six weeks. Mahindra and Mahindra’s Logan also continues to lose steam – sales fell 20 per cent y-o-y in September on top of a 35 per cent decline in August .

Utility vehicles were the runaway winners in September with an all-time high sales growth of 31 per cent. Consider this: sales were up just 2 per cent in August and had in fact declined by 8 per cent in July. M&M launched the Scorpio Automatic recently to cash in on the festive season and its new offering — Ingenio — could also boost volumes further.

The commercial vehicle volumes for Tata Motors were up 6 per cent although the medium and heavy vehicles sales declined by 10 per cent mainly due to higher interest rates. Light commercial vehicles sold much better and clocked a growth of 23 per cent.