Car sales grow slowest during May
According
to figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers
(SIAM) on Monday, domestic car sales in May stood at 1,63,229 units as
against 1,58,809 units in the same month last year.
"This is the
slowest growth since October last year when car sales witnessed a
decline of 23.77 per cent," SIAM Director General Vishnu Mathur told
reporters in New Delhi on Monday.
"The
softening of interest rates, which was expected to happen has not
materialised and continues to be high. Moreover, the high prices of
petrol have also affected sales and the overall sentiment in the market
is very negative," he added.
Increase
in prices of vehicles following the excise duty hike in the Budget has
also had a major impact, Mathur said, adding that even diesel vehicles
which used to have a lot of demand had tapered off.
"In
the premium and executive segment, which are generally considered to be
not price sensitive, the demand for diesel vehicles has slowed down,"
Mathur said.
At
such a time, he added, "if the government goes ahead and decides to tax
diesel vehicles more, the overall demand will suffer all the more".
In the passenger car segment, market leader Maruti Suzuki's sales dipped by 5.94 percent to 72,309 units.
However,
rival Hyundai Motor India's sales increased by 3.03 percent to 31,939
units. Homegrown auto major Tata Motors' car sales were up by 6.70
percent at 17,371 units.
In
May, total sales of vehicles across categories registered an increase
of 10.52 percent to 15,13,032 units as against 13,69,070 units in the
same month last year.
Total two-wheeler sales last month increased by 11.40 percent to 11,92,688 units from 10,70,603 units in May 2011.
According to the SIAM
data, motorcycle sales in the country grew 7.24 percent during the
month to 8,87,634 units from 8,27,746 units in the same month last year.
In this segment, market leader Hero MotoCorp posted 10.68 percent jump in sales to 5,02,676 units in May.
However, rival Bajaj Auto's sales went down by 5.30 percent to 2,06,751 units during the month.
Honda
Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) posted a 45.45 percent increase
in sales to 88,334 units, while TVS Motor moved 47,175 units, 14.47
percent less than the corresponding month of the previous year.
The scooter segment's overall sales grew 34.40 percent to 2,35,185 units from 1,74,985 units.
HMSI's
scooter sales grew by 65.47 percent to 1,24,123 units in May, while
Hero MotoCorp sold 36,312 units, up 24 percent. TVS Motor's sales saw
decline of 2.42 during the month to 34,936 units.
Commercial vehicles
sales grew by 9.12 percent to 62,025 units during the month, from
56,841 units in the year-ago period, SIAM said.
Medium
and Heavy Commercial Vehicle sales declined 10.58 percent to 22,227
units during the month compared to 24,858 units in May last year.
According to SIAM, light commercial vehicle sales grew 24.43 percent to 39,798 units in May 2012 from 31,983 units in May 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment