Festive automotive sales hit a low note this October

In the spirit of festivals such as Diwali, people get themselves something new, be it new clothes, jewelry or even new cars. This past month however, the monthly sales in the car industry didn't see much of a surge, the numbers released by manufacturers in the country indicates. Some of the manufacturers who saw a dip in sales include Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Tata Motors. The latter sold 9,594 units compared to 10,944 units in October last year (including exports) for passenger vehicles. This is a decline of 12 percent, while the sale of utility vehicles saw a decline of 40 percent – 1,917 units compared to 3,189 units previously. M&M reported a 15.39 percent decline in total sales. The car manufacturer clocked in 42,776 units this October compared to 50,558 units last year. M&Ms domestic sales fell 15.71 percent to 40,274 units against 47,787 units last October. Sales of passenger vehicles including Scorpio, XUV 500, Xylo, Bolero and Verito stood at 19,254 units, compared with 22,924 units in October 2013, down 16 percent. 

 

Maruti Suzuki, on the other hand, sold 97,069 units compared to last year in October, when it sold 96,062 units – one percent more than in 2013 The Alto and WagonR together sold 35,753 units, down nine percent from 39,379 units sold in the year-ago period.  The company’s latest model, the Ciaz, sold a decent 6,345 units. The Ritz, Celerio, Swift and Dzire sold 37,083 units down from 38,410 units in the year-ago month. While the Omni and Eeco sold 10,453 units as against 9,786 units last year.

 

Hyundai seems to be the one that did fairly, selling 38,010 units in the month as against 36,002 units in the year-earlier October, an increase of 5.6 percent. Commenting on the October sales, Rakesh Srivastava, senior VP, sales and marketing, said, “Hyundai’s volume has grown with a significant increase in sales of additional and replacement buyers propelled by strong demand lead by new models like Elite i20, Xcent coupled with festival buying. We anticipate that this positive momentum would build up further with increase in sales of entry buyers if there is strong promise of improvement in economic and macro factors in rural and urban markets.”