Cars, UVs April sales zoom, motorcycles crawl

The crippling effect of the excise duty cut announced by the finance minister in February has borne fruits in April as sales of cars and utility vehicles (UV) surge by 21 per cent, selling 130,013 units during the month as compared to the corresponding month of the previous years' total of 107,263 units.

Sales of India's largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki rose sharply by 22 per cent in the domestic arena during April thanks mainly to its small car models comprising Omni, Zen Estilo, Wagon R and Swift among others.

Korean vehicle maker Hyundai Motors clocked a jump of more than 36 per cent in domestic sales at 21,501 units as against 15,728 units.

Analyst also attribute the rise in demand to the apprehension about the expected price hikes to be introduced by all the vehicle manufacturers this month following a stupendous rise in input costs over the past two quarters.

Two-wheeler makers too rejoiced with an over all growth of 8 per cent at 616,038 units after witnessing a slump in sales for the past two consecutive quarters. Motorcycles, which make up the majority of the sales (81 per cent) in the two wheeler segment, grew by 8.31 per cent.