Escort, Astra Break Sales Jinx, Others Struggle
Mahindra-Ford's Escort and General Motors India's Opel Astra have bucked the recessionary trend that has gripped the mid-sized automobile segment in the last three months.
According to December 1996 sales figures, Astra's sale has nearly doubled from 700 vehicles in November to around 1,300 in December.
Escort has improved its position by notching up a sale of 550 units against 424 units in the same period.
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DCM-Daewoo's Cielo and Maruti's Esteem have been hit hard with Cielo's sales dropping to around 700 units from 1,411 units in November.
Esteem sold only 1,335 units against 1,703 units in the same period.
The fall has been attributed to sluggish consumer demand, while other industry sources say Cielo has suffered because it has stopped credit deliveries to its dealers.
Cielo's sales started dipping from October. While in September, 2,260 units were sold the figure was down to 1,402 in October.
The mixed trends in the sales pattern are being attributed to the drop in demand in that segment.
While Opel Astra and Ford have a waiting list and hence a constant demand, neither Esteem nor Cielo have a waiting list and their sales are dependent on new purchases, which have dropped sharply on account of the ongoing recession, says an analyst with a leading financial institution
"We had no problems on the demand front but were not producing enough cars, said a source at General Motors. However, with stabilising of demand in the November-December period, our production has increased and so has sales," he said.
"With the increase in production, the premium on Astra has come down from Rs 1 lakh to about Rs 5,000," industry sources said.
However, DCM-Daewoo is not unduly worried about the drop in sales.
"The Cielo commands almost 40 per cent of the market share in the mid-sized segment, and the drop in volumes is mainly due to the sluggish market and is affecting every body across the board. Esteem's sales too have dipped in the last few months," company sources said.
The total passenger cars sold in September was 32,841 but the figure slipped to 28,565 in November. While the sale of Hindustan Motors dipped from 2,485 in September to 1,748 in October and 1,650 in November last year.
Maruti's sales dipped from 22,878 in September to 16,363 in October and rallied to 19,013 in November.
Maruti van's sales figures for the same period were 3918,3209 and 3,666 respectively.
Tata Mercedes E220's sales dipped from 154 in September to 48 in October and 21 in November.
The sales figure of Premier Padmini rose from 339 in October to 866 in November while that of Premiar 118 NE rose to 189 in November from 112 in October last year.