CHENNAI: Auto sales in November recorded a surprising 16 per cent yearly growth, riding on low-base effect following demonetisation, continued robust demand from the rural pockets and new launches. Also, according to experts, the goods and services tax may have been a net positive for the automobile sector.
The top seven passenger vehicles makers — Maruti, Hyundai, Mahindra, Honda Cars, Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Ford India — witnessed an unusual surge in sales, selling a cumulative 2.53 lakh units, up from 2.18 lakh a year ago.
Market leader Maruti Suzuki’s domestic sales rose 14 per cent to 1.44 lakh units, driven by the compact segment comprising Swift, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno, DZire and Tour S, which jumped 32.4 per cent to 65,447 units. Demand for utility vehicles (Gypsy, Ertiga, Brezza, S Cross) remained strong to grow 34 per cent to 23702 units. However, sales of mid-sized sedan Ciaz declined by 26.2 percent during the month.
“Higher auto sales suggest that the exogenous shocks like demonetisation and transition to GST appears to be withering away,” said Abdul Majeed, partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Utility vehicle and tractor maker Mahindra & Mahindra posted 21 per cent rise in year-on-year domestic sales at 36,039 units but exports fell six per cent to 2,531 units in the month gone by. “We expect our growth momentum to continue on the back of some recent refresh launches as well as the positivity of our product portfolio,” says Rajan Wadhera, president - automobile sector, M&M.
Hyundai Motor India saw its domestic wholesales grow by 10 per cent to 44,008 units against 40,016 units sold in the same month last year. Rakesh Srivastava, director, sales & marketing, HMIL, said, “We hope to build on this positive momentum with a cumulative retail sale of 200,000 units for September-December 2017.”
Tata Motors posted 35 per cent rise in sales in November at 17,157 units against 12,736 units sold in the same month last year. On the two-wheeler front, Bajaj reported a 21 per cent rise in total sales in November at 3,26,458 units against 2,69,948 units in the same month last year. TVS Motor also reported 6.1 per cent increase in domestic sales at 2,03, 138 units during the month under review as against 1,91,499 units in the year-ago month.