After rather dull sales in the festive seasons of the past two years, automakers are ready to celebrate with full gusto this year with car volumes already rising in September by around 10% for the major players.
This year?s festive season, which began in end-August and will continue till early November after Diwali, is witness to the highest number of new car and two-wheeler launches in the past few years. Already Tata Motors has launched the Zest compact sedan, and will follow with the Bolt hatchback, while Maruti Suzuki will launch the Ciaz, Hyundai has launched the new i20 and Honda its Mobilio MPV. Hero MotoCorp also plans to launch 10 bike and scooters.
In September, Maruti saw a 10% jump to 99,290 units as it built up stocks at its dealers, while rival Hyundai and Honda saw 14.5% (35,041 units) and 45% (15,015 units) growth.
Mahindra came back to the third spot in the domestic passenger vehicle market with a 5% growth to 19,893 units on the back of its new Scorpio and XUV500 models. Tata Motors, however, lagged with a 7% drop to 11,931 units.
In two-wheelers, market leader Hero saw a 29% jump to 6.04 lakh units, while Honda saw a 33% rise to 4.38 lakh units and Bajaj recorded 7% higher volumes to 3.47 lakh units.
