Santro overtakes Zen, Esteem sales

Santro overtakes Zen, Esteem sales
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

New Delhi, Feb 2: Hyundai Motors' Santro has for the first time overtaken Maruti Udyog's Zen and Esteem car models. Hyundai sold 7402 units of its 1000-cc Santro model as compared to Maruti's Zen model sales of 6337 units in January. Maruti's mid-size luxury car Esteem also fell behind Hyundai Accent. While Maruti sold 1144 units of Esteem, Hyundai sold 1243 units of Accent model.

Hyundai has thus emerged as the market leader for the first time in the Zen and Accent segments but the figures are for one month sales. Telco's Indica took the third position with sales of 5,827 units followed by Daewoo's Matiz at 4207 units in January this year.

Maruti's largest selling 800-cc model sold 12610 units in January this year which is significantly lower than 15700 units sold in the same month of 1999. Industry analysts say that this is surprising in the light of the fact that sales are expected to be higher in the first month of the year as customers postpone their buying decision at the end of the year.

AMaruti spokesperson stated that Zen sales were lower than Santro as the company had started despatch of cars on January 10 after the annual maintenance shutdown. He claimed that the company had 5,500 outstanding order for the Zen model.

Sales of Maruti's latest mid-size luxury car Baleno stood at 328 units during January.

In the Esteem category, it is the fourth that a competitor has beaten Maruti in monthly sales figures. In April 1997, Daewoo's Cielo model sold 1291 units against 1142 of Esteem.