News: Indian car sales shift to top gear

(FE 04/04/2006) New Delhi - After a tepid 11 months, when volumes crawled at single digit growth rates, passenger vehicle players closed the fiscal in fourth gear.

All carmakers, who reported numbers on Monday, registered double digit growth rates for March. Sales traditionally spike in March because auto companies push sales to meet targets.

Also, vehicle demand from corporates increases to avail depreciation benefits. In the past two years, customers have also postponed purchases in February in expectation of excise sops leading to increased demand in March.

Market leader Maruti Udyog Ltd sold 61,000 vehicles in March, its highest in a month, riding on compact car sales after the excise cut. Boosted by demand for compact cars like the Alto and Swift, the company registered a 20% increase in March volumes.

Even the M800 sold 10,937 units, registering a 6.7% increase in March, its first growth in sales in over a year. Sales for the financial year, however, were subdued, wth a growth rate of only 8.13%.

The second largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor India Ltd saw a robust growth of 38% in march. Its record breaking sales of 30,038 units were the highest among all Hyundai subsidiaries outside Asia. The company closed 2005-06 with sales of 1.59 lakh units, a growth rate of 11.87% over 2004-05.

For Honda, Ford and GM, recently launched models -- City Zx, Fiesta and Chevrolet Aveo respectively – boosted sales in the final month of 2005-06.

All the MNC carmakers registered their all time high monthly volumes in March. While the former closed the fiscal with 12.6% growth rate, the American giants grew at a more sedate 5%.