Auto Sales in a Forward Mode

Auto industry is on a high, scoring a hat trick with three consecutive months of double-digit growth. The month of Oct'05 witnessed a robust growth in auto sales, primarily due to the strong festive season demand coupled with the introduction of new models and variants. Most of the industry heavyweights piled up impressive sales as the overall industry grew by about 22.84% over the same month last year.

Maruti Udyog Limited registered a healthy growth of 14.7% in the domestic market over Oct'04, selling 50,308 vehicles. The company's total sales for Oct'05 added up to 51,543 units, which represents an increase of 4.34% over Oct'04 sales of 49,399 units. The exports, however, went down to 1,235 units that are considerably lower (77%) than previous October's figure of 5,458 units. The company recorded its highest ever sales in domestic passenger car market for any month with a tally of 50,052 units. Alto also recorded its highest ever sales of 15,558 units.

 
In the A2 Segment, the company's sales were up 35.1 % over October last year to touch 31,531 units. The company also recorded a growth of 18.7% in A3 segment as compared to October last year.

Hyundai Motor India (HMI) clocked its highest ever sales in a month at 24,762 vehicles, and thereby, surpassed its previous highest of 24,311 vehicles, recorded in the month of August. This reflects a growth of 9.06% over the corresponding sales figure of 22,704 vehicles in Oct'04. Of this, domestic sales comprised 15,801 units, a growth of 19% over the same month last year. However, exports dipped 5% to record 8,691 units, mainly due to the heavy demand in the domestic market.

The segmentwise cumulative sales of HMI for the month of Oct'05 are: A2 segment - 20,774 units; A3 segment - 3,531 units; A4 segment - 255 units; A5 segment - 94 units; and SUV segment - 94 units.

Another star performer in October was Tata Motors, whose total vehicle sales at 41,338 units, grew by 17.2% over the same month previous year. The company's sales of commercial vehicles in Oct'05, in the domestic market, were 19,700 units, an increase of 18.2% over 16,667 vehicles sold in October last year.

Exports stood at 4,433 vehicles, which represents an increase of 94.1 % as against 2,284 units exported in Oct'04.

The company sold 11,250 units of Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles in the domestic market while the LCV sales clocked 8,180 units. The export figures for both were 626 units and 1,936 units, respectively.

The passenger vehicle business registered a growth of 5.4% in the domestic market over Oct'04, selling 17,205 vehicles. The corresponding figure last year was 16,332 units.

General Motors India sold 2,829 units in Oct'05 vis-a-vis 2,752 cars in Oct'04. Chevrolet brand of GM, sold 1,901 Taveras & 652 Ophas, recording a 19.29% rise in combined monthly sales. GMI also sold 274 Opel Corsas in October.

Mahindra & Mahindra was also a big gainer this October. Its total sales stood at 15,675 units, up 19.37% over 13,131 units sold in Oct'04. The domestic sales of its Utility Vehicles numbered 8,625 units while the exports notched up 191 units. In the LCV category, the domestic sales figure was 4,202 units while the exports were 325 units. Growth was also seen in the three-wheeler category, whose sales rose to 2,332 units, an increase of 8.41% as against 2,151 units sold in October last year.

Ashok Leyland notched up total vehicle sales of 4,281 units, up 27.6% over Oct04's figure of 3,356 units. The domestic sales saw a growth of 25% to touch 3,921 units. Exports surged ahead by 64%, from 219 units in Oct'04, to 360 units this October.

Eicher Motors' overall sales in Oct'05 accounted for 2,074 units, recording a growth of 9.9% over the total sales tally of 1,887 units, clocked last October. While the LCV segment performed commendably, growing by over 25%, the M&HCVs, in comparison, could only register a meager 3.38% growth.

Honda Siel Cars India Ltd, though, couldn't cash in on the boom experienced by the auto industry in the month of October. The company's fortunes took a dip vis-a-vis last October. Sales in Oct'05 were down by 58.2% to 1,255 units as compared to 3,016 units in October 2004. However, their cumulative sales YTD still remained higher at 23,518 units, an increase of 14.02% over last year's corresponding figure of 20,625 units.

Bajaj Auto Limited took a big leap forward to close the gap with the leader in the two-wheeler market, Hero Honda, in Oct'05, by selling a record 2,41,808 units overall, registering a growth of 37 % over last October. This included an export figure of 22,713 units - the highest export figure for Oct'05 among all auto manufacturers.

The company's performance in the motorcycle segment this October was noteworthy - it raked up its highest ever sales of 2,05,012 units in a month. The Discover DTS-I was the star performer in this segment, selling 43,680 units.

The scooter/scooterettee segment also saw a healthy growth of 18.82 % vis-a-vis Oct'04.

With sales of 21,881 units, 3-wheeler volumes were up 15% - as a result of the strong demand for the Bajaj LPG and CNG 3-wheelers.

Hero Honda had an outstanding Oct'05. The company's retail sales crossed the 4-lakh mark for the first time in the history of the Indian two-wheeler industry. This included a record dispatch of 3,02,012 units, marking a growth of 23.02 % y-o-y.

The company's sales performance during Oct'05 is evidence of the success of its customer centric business philosophy.

TVS Motor Company grew by 17.33% to arrive at an overall sales total of 1,37,886 units as against the figure of 1,17,516 units in the same month last year. Domestic sales accounted for 1,31,870 units, up 15.86% from the corresponding month last year. Exports were up this October by 62.63% at 6,016 units, from 3699 units in Oct'04.

In case of TVS too, the motorcycle segment was the major contributor, with sales of 85,463 units, well over last October's figure of 74,683 units.

LML Limited, which has been struggling to come to terms with the competition for sometime, also came up with an impressive performance in Oct'05, clocking sales of 16,651 units. This is an improvement of 64.6 % over last October's figure of 10,113 units. Out of this, domestic sales contributed 14,407 units while the rest 2,604 units came from exports.

The month of Oct'05 has proved to be a healthy one for the auto industry. The challenge lying ahead of the industry now would be to match this performance and, if possible, improve upon it in the days to come.