Major carmakers in India have reported impressive sales figures for December 2009, showing signs on strong recovery from recession that led to poor sales for most of last year.
Those selling mass models like Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai as well as luxury carmakers like Ford, Skoda and General Motors – all have shown impressive double digit growth.
India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. reported a 50.6 per cent jump in its sales in December 2009 at 84,804 units, where domestic sales went up by 36.5 per cent at 71,000 units.
Exports also witnessed a massive jump to 13,804 units against 4,264 units in the year ago month.
Similarly, country’s top exporter Hyundai Motor India Ltd. also registered a 22.64 per cent growth in sales at 47,217 units.
While domestic sales in December went up by 42.62 per cent at 22,252 units, exports also registered a hike of 9 per cent at 24,965 units. The carmaker sold over 5.59-lakh cars in 2009, registering a growth of 14.41 per cent.
General Motors India also registered over 100 per cent rise in its sales at 8,258 units in December 2009, making it the highest-ever monthly sales in the 13 years of its operations in India.
“Increase in distribution network, customer acceptance of our value proposition like Chevrolet cashless ownership offer on Spark and our brand promise in terms of quality, performance and other product attributes are the reasons for the consistent growth,” GM India Vice-President P Balendran said while commenting on company’s excellent performance.
Though Ford India registered a 3 per cent growth in 2009 at 29,488 units, its performance during the second half of the year was impressive, compared to previous year’s figures, where the company sold over 15,000 vehicles.
According to Nigel Wark, Ford India’s Executive Director (Marketing, Sales & Service): “’It has been an exciting year with stronger sales reported in the second half of the year. We are going into the new year with great excitement with these results and will see growing our business significantly in this dynamic market with our new compact car Figo to be launched in early 2010 and making us a significant volume player in India,” he added.
The luxury segment too showed good results. Czech carmaker SkodaAuto registered over 52 per cent growth in its sales in December 2009 at 1,113 units.
“The sales figures for Skoda since the launch of the all new Skoda Superb and the new Laura this year have surpassed our expectations,” said SkodaAuto India Board Member (Sales and Marketing) Thomas Kuehl. It will be launching sports utility vehicle Yeti at the Auto Expo beginning next week.
Similarly, Mahindra & Mahindra said its domestic sales in December 2009 doubled to 22,754 units, thanks to impressive performance by multi- utility vehicles including Scorpio, Xylo and Bolero. Its sales of three-wheelers and newly-launched four-wheeled small cargo carrier Gio also recorded excellent sales.
Exports during the month stood at 1,247 units as against 412 units in December 2008, it added.
