Making a strong come back after last year's slow growth, Indian car and bike manufacturers are now showing impressive growth this year, with some clocking their ‘best ever' monthly sales. Last month too, leading automakers, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Hero Honda, posted record sales, thanks to high festive season demand.
In October, Maruti Suzuki India reported its highest-ever overall monthly sales of over 1.18-lakh units, registering an impressive 39.21 per cent growth against the year-ago period. It improved its previous overall sales recorded in September at 1.08-lakh units. It also made another record of crossing the one-lakh-unit sales mark in the domestic market last month.
Its closest competitor Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) reported its best-ever monthly domestic sales of 34,725 units in October, registering 22.70 per cent growth. It had also clocked its previous best of 31,751 units in September.
“The market has been on upswing in the last few months, but the introduction of new Next Gen i 10 has really pepped up things for HMIL with the new i 10 sales growing as much as 26 per cent in the last two months,” HMIL Director (Marketing and Sales) Arvind Saxena said in a statement.
Tata Motors also saw its sales rising by over 21 per cent at 64,757 units in October, while Mahindra & Mahindra reported a 34.38 per cent jump in total sales at 34,495 units.
With new launches, the two U.S. carmakers — General Motors and Ford — also did reasonably well last month. While GM India sold over 10,000 units, clocking 35.59 per cent growth, Ford India reported over two-fold jump in its sales at 9,026 units. Toyota Kirloskar Motor also registered a 16.85 per cent jump in sales at 6,602 units in October.
Similarly, in the two-wheeler segment, Hero Honda reported its highest-ever monthly sales in October as it also crossed the 5-lakh-unit mark, registering a 42.75 per cent growth. Chennai-based TVS Motor Company's two-wheeler sales in October stood at over 1.91-lakh units, a growth of 46 per cent over year-ago period, while Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India reported an over two-fold increase in sales to 1.48-lakh units. India Yamaha Motor also reported a 19.21 per cent increase in total sales at 37,251 units, while Suzuki Motorcycle sales went up by 60 per cent to 25,439 units. New entrant, Mahindra & Mahindra reported an over three-fold jump in sales at 21,204 units in October.
