January sales see mixed outcomes for automobile makers

Chennai: The year 2015 began on a mixed note for Indian auto makers with some clocking positive growth while others saw dipping sales.

Companies like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Maruti Suzuki India and TVS Motors logged volume growth in January, while those who experienced dipping sales blamed the withdrawal of excise duty concessions and higher interest rate.

Tata Motors said its total commercial and passenger vehicles sales (including exports) last month were 42,582 vehicles, up from 40,481 vehicles sold in January 2014.

The company's domestic sales of Tata commercial and passenger vehicles last month were 38,621 units, a growth of 5 percent over 36,657 units sold in January 2014.

According to Tata Motors, while the market continues to remain challenged by macro-economic trends, besides positive growth in segments such as medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) and passenger cars, exports have grown in last month by four percent over last year.

In the passenger vehicle segment, Tata Motors logged 19 percent growth at 13,047 units last month as compared to 10,974 units sold in January 2014.

The company's sales of commercial vehicles in January 2015 in the domestic market - at 25,574 units - remained flat.

Similarly another truck and bus make Ashok Leyland Ltd closed last month with 14 percent growth, selling 10,639 units up from 7,847 units sold in January 2014.

The company logged growth both in the medium, heavy and light commercial vehicles segment.

Among the car makers, Maruti Suzuki India logged 13.9 percent volume growth selling a total of 116,606 units (domestic 105,559 units, exports 11,047 units) up from 102,416 units (domestic 96,569 units, exports 5,847 units) sold in January 2014.

During the period under review, the company had logged 7.3 percent negative growth in the mini segment (Alto, WagonR) while other segments showed positive growth.

Korean parentage Hyundai Motor India's total sales went down by 1.4 percent reduced at 44,784 units (domestic 34,780 units, exports 10,004 units) last month as compared to 45,413 units (domestic 33,405 units, exports 12,008 units) sold during January 2014.

"Hyundai sold 34,780 units in the domestic market with a growth of seven percent over last month," said Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice president-sales and marketing.

"For sustained growth, the need of the hour is reduction in interest rates and rationalisation of taxes to increase the inflow of the first time buyers," he added.

Utility vehicle major Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd's (M&M) sales of passenger/utilityfour wheeler commercial vehicles also went down by 2,755 units.

The company said it sold 39,930 units (passenger vehicles, utility vehicles, four-wheeler commercial vehicles, trucks and buses) last month as compared with 42,685 units sold during the corresponding month in the previous year.

While the company's utility vehicles, three-wheelers and commercial vehicles logged lower sales, the truck and bus division registered a growth, with 796 units being sold last month, up from 722 units sold in January 2014.

"The first month of 2015 has not been encouraging as the effect of the withdrawal of excise duty is clearly evident. Unfortunately, the segmented recovery, which we were witnessing over the last couple of months has been impacted with the excise duty change," said Pravin Shah, chief executive of the automotive division.

In the two and three wheeler category, TVS Motor last month sold 188,598 units (two-wheelers 181,516 units, three-wheelers 7,082 units) up from 186,313 units (two-wheelers 179,576 units, three-wheelers 6,737 units) sold in January 2014.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto Ltd's sales went down by 29,425 units to 288,745 units.

The company's cumulative sales till January 2015 were also down to 3,317,278 units from 3,252,466 units for the corresponding period last year.