Chennai, Feb 2
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.
