Sales: Festival cruise for some carmakers

Riding on festival season purchases, auto majors, including Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai, Audi and Toyota Kirloskar, today reported robust growth in domestic passenger vehicle sales in October.

In contrast, Tata Motors, General Motors India and Ford India reported decline in their sales during the month.

Market leader Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) posted 86.56 per cent increase in its domestic sales at 96,002 units compared to 51,458 units in the year-ago month. Its sales in October last year was low on account of workers' strike at its Manesar plant.

Mahindra & Mahindra, said its domestic sales in October grew 30.4 per cent to 51,316 units against 39,352 units in October 2011. The company also posted its highest ever total monthly sales in October this year at 53,438 units.

The country's second-largest car maker Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) reported 8.4 per cent increase in domestic sales which stood at 35,778 units compared to 33,001 units in the year-ago period.

Commenting on the sales performance, HMIL Vice-President (National Sales) Rakesh Srivastava said: "The festivals brought in positive growth in domestic sales with resurgence in petrol variants."

German luxury car maker Audi reported 76 per cent jump in October sales at 850 units as against 482 units in the same month last year.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor said its October sales grew 14.11 per cent to 12,281 units in October compared to 10,762 units in the same month last year.

"The market is still sluggish, especially the passenger car segment. The SUV and MPV segments are comparatively better and we hope to see the market picking up as the festive season continues," TKM Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) Sandeep Singh said.

The tough market conditions were reflected in the sales of Tata Motors, which posted 15.94 per cent decline in total passenger vehicle sales in October at 21,119 units against 25,124 units in the same month last year.

... contd.

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