The last month of the fiscal 2007-08 has ended on a high note for all major players except market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, which witnessed a dip of 2.1% in its total sales at 70,296 units during March.
?Exports of Maruti fell by 18.6% during this month to 5,875 units whereas its domestic sales remained flat. This has brought down the total sales of the company,? said a Mumbai-based analyst.
Its closest rival Hyundai Motor India Ltd posted a robust 66.4% growth on the back of its newly launched i10 and General Motor India registered a 51% increase in sales on the back of huge demand for Spark and the newly launched Chevrolet Captiva. Even Tata Motors managed to grow by 6% and Honda Siel Cars India grew by 4.8%.
Sales of Maruti declined by 0.2% in the domestic market at 64,421 units during this month. However, during the full fiscal year, the company?s domestic sales grew by 12% to 7,11,818 units as against 6,35,629 units in 2006-07. While, domestic sales of Hyundai grew by 52.3% to 29,401 units in March, its exports went up by 96.9% to 17,600 units. Total sales of Tata Motors, including exports, grew by 6% to 66,495 units. Even General Motor India reported a 51% jump in sales at 6,836 units in March while for year ending March, its sales jumped up by 71% to 66,543 units. Sales of Honda was up at 8,895 units, while that of Toyota Innova grew by 15% to 6,215 units and Mahindra Renault sold 3,068 units of Logan.
On the two-wheeler front, market leader Hero Honda defied the industry trend and registered a 15% growth in sales in March at 3,20,594 units. It?s total sales for the financial year 2007-08 ended flat at 33,37,142 units. TVS Motor, on the other hand, posted 16.83% dip in sales in March at 60,908 units. Its total sales for the year ending March declined by 8.7% to 1,17,045 units. Sales of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Ltd grew by 5% to 79,944 units in March as against 76,258 units during the same month a year ago.