In the passenger car segment, market leaders Maruti Suzuki are the only major players to record double-digit growth. They sold 61,583 units in June 2009, a 10.17 per cent growth over the same period last year when they sold 55,899 units. Maruti also had the strongest cumulative sales growth for the period of April-June 2009 (Q1) selling 1,96,032 units, a 9.65 per cent increase over the 1,78,777 units sold in Q1 of 2008. Hyundai Motors India Limited (HMIL) continues to gain ground over an increasingly distant third Tata Motors selling 23,016 units this June. They had sold 21,881 units in June 2008 thereby registering a 5.19 per cent growth. The company’s policy to aggressively push exports over domestic sales has seen them record alternately positive and negative sales for 9 months now and volatile domestic sales have taken a toll on the company’s cumulative sales which grew by a mere 1.29 per cent in Q1 2009 with sales of 68,766 units against sales of 67,892 units in Q1 last year.

Tata Motors continues to do poorly and just managed to break even this month with a growth of 0.13 per cent. The company sold 17,017 units in June 2008 and only managed to sell 17,039 units in June 2009. In addition, cumulative sales for Q1 09 have declined by 10.28 per cent over Q1 08 given that sales during those periods were 45,837 and 51,094 respectively.

Honda Siel Cars India’s (HSCI) launch of the Jazz has contributed to the 6.49 per cent increase in growth as the company sold 5,039 units this month against 4,732 units during the same month in 2008. However, given that the sales of the Honda City have dropped by nearly 1,000 units, one gets the feeling that given its price, the Jazz at least to begin with is eating into the City’s market. HSCI also recorded a 5.74 per cent cumulative growth in sales, selling 12,768 units in Q1 ’09 whereas 67,892 units had been sold in Q1 ’08.

Arvind Saxena, senior vice-president, marketing and sales, HMIL, said, “The growth curve remains flat. We hope that in the coming Budget too, the government will continue the initiatives which it had taken to support the domestic market and also take some positive steps to support exports which have a huge potential to increase sales in overseas markets.”

Fiat who have now launched the Linea and Grande Punto had a 394.82 per cent sales increase. Whereas 550 units had been sold by the company last year in June, this year they sold 2,474 units. Similarly, due their small market base and recent launches, the cumulative sales growth is also stratospheric. The company sold 1,401 units in Q1 2008 but 4,854 units in Q1 2009 — a 246.47 per cent increase.

It was business as usual in the two-wheeler segment. Market leaders Hero Honda extended their market share to 59 per cent and grew by 23.69 per cent in June 2009, selling 3,65,734 units over 2,95,675 units sold in June 2008. Cumulative sales for Q1 were similarly spectacular. Anil Dua, senior vice-president (marketing & sales), Hero Honda Motors Ltd, said, “Our performance is very satisfying. Our strategy has been driven by innovation in every sphere of our activity — building a robust product portfolio across categories, exploring new markets, aggressively expanding the network and continuing to invest in brand-building activities”

The company has sold 11,18,987 units in the first 3 months of the new financial year — a 25.13 per cent increase over sales during Q1 in 2008 which stood at 8,94,244 units. TVS motors also had a good month, recording a double-digit growth of 12.03 per cent, having sold 1,05,361 units in June 2009 over 94,072 units in June 2008.