Oct car sales up 4.3%; CVs higher by 6.92%

Our Corporate Bureau

Mumbai, Nov 20: Buoyed by an improved performance from leading car-makers like Maruti, Hyundai, Fiat India and Tata Engineering (Telco), domestic car sales clocked a 4.3 per cent increase in October as against the same month last year.

Total sales stood at 37,856 cars over 36,284 cars in the same month last year, according to data collated by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

India’s largest car-maker Maruti Udyog posted a 10.81 per cent rise in sales at 19,596 units against 17,670 units in October 2000.
Hyundai Motor’s sales went up by 3.2 per cent at 7,059 units (6,839 units in October 2000). However, sales of Ford India and Hindustan Motors declined while battered Daewoo Motors again did not disclose its sales figures for the month under review. Fiat India also posted a strong performance on the back of the Palio launch. The company sold 2,060 units as against 831 units in October last.

Cumulative sales (April-October 2001-02) dipped by 4.9 per cent to 3.15 lakh cars against 3.31 lakh cars sold during the year-ago period.
Commercial vehicle sales also went up by 6.92 per cent at 10,717 units over 10,023 units in the year-ago month. The increase is attributed to a 15.4 per cent rise in sales of medium and heavy (M&H) vehicles even as the light commercial vehicle segment (LCV) recorded a drop of 22.6 per cent.

The country’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer Telco recorded a 24.5 per cent rise in M&H vehicle sales at 4,863 units but posted a 10.6 per cent decline in LCV sales at 2,158 units.

Multi-utility-vehicle (MUV) sales increased marginally by 0.5 per cent at 10,442 units (10,389 units). Mahindra and Mahindra, Telco and Bajaj, however, registered a decline in sales with the latter two showing 23 and 33 per cent decline in sales.

Riding on the back of a booming motorcycle market, which posted a spectacular 58.6 per cent growth in sales, overall two-wheeler sales shot up to 22.5 per cent even as scooter sales dipped by 11.6 per cent.

In the motorcycle segment, all the players recorded a rise in sales in October. Hero Honda posted a 43 per cent rise at 1.31 lakh motorcycles (91,393 units in October 2000), while that of Bajaj Auto increased 57.7 per cent at 72,302 units (45,916 units).