Press Trust of India
New Delhi, May 2: Leading auto makers Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor and M&M began the new financial year with robust sales in April as also two-wheeler majors Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycles & Scooters. Ford India and Renault too reported good sales growth in April.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said its domestic sales increased by 16.2 per cent during the month to 1,17,045 units as against 1,00,709 units in April 2015. “Driving this robust growth for Maruti Suzuki are the new premium offerings Ciaz, Baleno, Vitara Brezza and S Cross. Communicating a new design philosophy, powered with new technologies and innovations, some of these products are on wait list,” MSI Executive Director, Marketing & Sales R S Kalsi said. The company is making all efforts to improve availability of Baleno and Brezza to meet commitment to customers, he added.
The company saw sales of its utility vehicles, including Gypsy, Grand Vitara, Ertiga, S-Cross and recently launched compact SUV Vitara Brezza surge over 3-fold to 16,044 units from 4,452 units a year ago. Sales of compact segment, comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz, Dzire and Baleno increased by 8 per cent to 45,700 units in April as against 42,297 units a year ago. However, sales of mini-segment cars including, Alto and WagonR declined 9.9 per cent to 31,906 units compared with 35,403 units in the year-ago period.
Rival Hyundai Motor Ltd (HMIL) India’s domestic sales rose 9.7 per cent to 42,351 units last month as compared to 38,601 units a year ago. “In an industry seeing challenges on rural sales and diesel vehicle sales, Hyundai continued its growth momentum with volume growth of 9.7 per cent over last year with strong performance of… Creta, Elite i20, Grand,” HMIL senior vice-president sales and marketing Rakesh Srivastava said. Home-grown utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra saw its domestic sales growing 14 per cent at 39,357 units last month compared with 34,467 units in April 2015.
In the two-wheeler segment, market leader Hero MotoCorp reported a 15 per cent increase in sales at 6,12,739 units in April as against 5,33,305 in the same month last year. Rival Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) reported 26.51 per cent increase in total sales at 4,31,011 units in April. It had sold 3,40,679 units in the corresponding month last year. Bajaj Auto, however, saw its total vehicle sales dip by 2 per cent last month at 3,30,109 units as against 3,36,274 units in the same month a year earlier. India Yamaha Motor posted 65.75 per cent jump in sales to 63,927 units in April.