New Delhi/Chennai, Dec 1 (IANS) Indian automobile manufacturers by and large Wednesday reported good sales figures for November on the back of a spurt in demand during the festive season.
Market leader Maruti Suzuki reported a 28 percent rise in vehicle sales in November this year, with 112,554 units sold during the month as against 87,807 sold in the corresponding period last year. The sales included 10,051 units of exports last month.
According to a regulatory filing of the company, November was the second consecutive month when the sales crossed one lakh unit mark in the domestic market with 102,503 units.
The company said its sales in the compact car A2 segment which comprises Alto, Wagon-R, Zen, Swift, Ritz and A-Star grew at 32.2 percent and stood at 74,063 units as against the corresponding period in 2009.
The auto giant also registered a growth of 27.2 percent in sales of its mid-sized (A3) segment comprising SX4 and ‘D’Zire at 11,115 vehicles.
India’s biggest auto maker by sales Tata Motors saw total sales of cars, sport-utility vehicles, trucks and buses climb marginally by one percent at 54,622 units as against 54,108 units sold in the corresponding period of last year.
General Motors India also saw a rise in sales for November which grew by 17.67 percent at 8,376 units in the month this year as against 7,118 units in the corresponding month in 2009.
According to GM India’s vice president P. Balendran, the rise was primarily driven by the favourable customer response to its sedan car Cruze, compact car Beat and hatchback Spark.
The automobile manufacturer also reported a cumulative rise of over 63 percent for sales in the January-November period compared to the corresponding period last year.
‘The sales comprised 2,786 units of Spark, 2,547 units of Beat and 617 units of Chevrolet Cruze,’ the company said in a statement.
Sales of other brands like Tavera stood at 1,476 units, followed by 297 units of Aveo, 291 units of Aveo U-VA, 262 units of Chevrolet Optra and 100 units of the Chevrolet Captiva.
Chennai-based automobile manufacturers Hyundai and TVS also closed the previous month with good sale numbers.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) reported a 12 percent rise in domestic sales for the previous month. Sales stood at 31,540 units as against 28,162 units in the like period of 2009.
‘Spurred by the festive season demand in November, HMIL continued to maintain steady growth in the domestic market,’ HMIL’s director (marketing and sales) Arvind Saxena said.
While the domestic segment of the automobile manufacturer boomed, its exports for the period went down by 52 percent, resulting in a 19.4 percent decline in the total sales for November.
‘Exports dipped on account of the company adjusting its production mix to meet the increased demand in the domestic market and the plant shutdown for maintenance work,’ the company said in a statement.
The statement further said that the total sales for November stood at 44,542 units, of which 31,540 units were from the domestic sales, while the exports stood at 13,002 units.
According to the company, sales were led by the A2 segment brands such as Santro, i10, i20 which accounted for sales of 40,347 units, followed by A3 segment sedans like Accent and Verna at 4,142 units and A5 segment luxury sedan Sonata Transform at 14 units.
The sales for the company’s recently launched sports utility vehicle (SUV) Santa Fe stood at 39 units.
Driven by its new model Figo, Ford India closed last month with a sales of 7,504 units as against 2,520 units sold during November 2009.
From January to November 2010, the company sold 79,586 units as against 27,906 units sold for the same period last year.
According to Michael Boneham, president and managing director, the year 2010 has been outstanding for the company.
Ford India has sold more than 58,000 Figo’s since its launch this March.
Though the company claims that its other models – Fiesta, Ikon and Endeavour – fared well in their respective segments, it did not share the model wise sales numbers.
Queried about the company’s sales numbers, an official of Nissan Motor India told IANS the numbers were being complied and will be announced later.
Two- and three-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor Company also reported stellar sales figures for the month of November, with a 29 percent increase in sales as compared to the corresponding period last year.
The company sold 157,041 units last month as against 121,945 units sold in November 2009.
The cumulative sales for the April-November period this year stood at 1,341,106 units.
TVS Motor sold 153,882 two wheelers (domestic 139,541 units, exports 14,341 units) last month as against 120,844 units (domestic 106,836 units, exports 14,008 units) in November 2009.
The company sold 3,159 three wheelers in November this year as against 1,101 units sold in the corresponding month last year.
The cumulative sales of three wheelers for the April-November 2010 period stood at 24,363 units.
