Maruti Suzuki sales increase 3% in March

Apprehensions of a possible duty hike on diesel cars in the Budget coupled with consumers rushing to buy cars at old excise rates drove cars sales up during the month of March. For the country?s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India, a continued robust demand for its compact car segment and the new swift DZire helped keep up the momentum in sales as the company registered a 3.28% increase in sales at 125,952 units against corresponding sales figure for March 2011.

The government was expected to levy an increased excise on diesel vehicles in the Budget, but it hiked it across the board making all consumer goods, including cars, expensive.

Following the trend, the country?s second largest passenger car manufacturer Hyundai Motors India also posted a 6.6% increase in sales at 59,229 units over last year, largely driven by the 22.9% increase in the domestic sales at 39,122 units for the month. According to the company?s figures its sales in the A2 segment comprising Eon, Santro, i10 and i20 were 39,122 while in the A3 segment comprising Accent and Verna were 7,679 units.

However, the company?s export numbers fell by 15.26% as export lines were diverted for domestic market given the surge in demand explained Arvind Saxena, director ? marketing and sales, HMIL. Commenting upon the monthly sales Saxena added, ?We could meet our expectations in March as there was considerable interest to beat the expected price hike in the Union Budget. The market continues to pose many challenges; things can improve if interest rates come down this quarter.?

Riding the wave of largest-ever Nano sales, which crossed the 10,000-unit mark, and a whopping 65% boost to Indica?s demand in the market during the month, the country?s third largest passenger vehicle manufacturer Tata Motors registered a 30% higher sales at 38,399 units during the month. March also saw the company record the highest ever sales of both the passenger car vehicles as well as the commercial vehicles ever. The company?s commercial vehicles segment which grew at 17% sold 49,753 units in the month which was once again the largest commercial vehicles sales during a month. However, its exports suffered a decline of 10% at 5,367units.

Like Tata Motors, sports utility major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) as well as Toyota Kirloslar saw highest ever sales during the month. M&M posted a 25% hike in the auto sales figures in the month at 47,000 units. The domestic sales stood at 44,342 units during March an increase of 25%. Out of which the passenger vehicles segment registered a growth of 33%, having sold 23,020 units. Following suit, powered by its Etios? range, Toyota Kirloskar?s sales rose 87% to a highest ever figure of 18,220 units in the month.

Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) reported three-fold jump in its sales for March at 11,016 units.

Nissan Motor India Private (NMIPL) on Monday reported its highest ever monthly sales in India with a record 5,880 units sold in March. The March 2012 sales represent a massive 180% increase over the March 2011 figures of 2,101 units. It also outperformed Nissan?s previous monthly record achieved in February 2012 when 5,371 units were sold.

In the two-wheeler segment, Suzuki Motorcycle India reported a 28.50% growth in March sales at 35,158 units.

TVS Motor Company achieved its 2 million sales target earlier this financial year to report an overall sale of 2,198,142 units for the financial year ended March 2012 against 2,046,541 units sale recorded in the previous financial year, registering a growth of 7%. However, the total two-wheeler sales for the month of March 2012 stood at 180,274 units in comparison with 186,781 units recorded in March 2011, a decline of around 3.5%, including a steep fall in scooters sale to 39,395 units (42,655 units in March of previous year). Motorcycles sales, too, witnessed a sharp fall and accounted for 65,994 units in March 2012 as against 79,642 units in March 2011.

Meanwhile, Hero MotoCorp (HMCL), the world?s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, completed the first financial year since embarking on its solo journey by reporting the highest-ever unit sales in a financial year, with record sales of 6,235,205 units of two-wheelers in FY12.

This translates to a growth of 15.4% over FY11, when it had sold 54,02,444 units. In keeping with the trend over the past several months, HMCL closed FY12 with yet another month of five lakh-plus sales. The company sold 528,290 units in the month of March 2012. It had sold 515,852 units in the corresponding month in 2011.