India's Car Sales Report March 2010: A Review

Automobile sales in India continued its robust momentum and touched record highs in March 2010. Most industry players recorded healthy growth for the month and their volumes showed no signs of fizzling out whatsoever. This boom in auto sales is accredited to the positive consumer sentiment, which stayed upright even in the wake of recent car price hikes. Preponement of buying plans from the dealers in anticipation of the much talked about Excise duty roll back in the Union Budget is also thought be partially responsible for this record growth in car sales volume.

Maruti Suzuki recorded an 11% rise in total car sales, as compared to the corresponding period last year, at 95,123 vehicles in March 2010. Exports skyrocketed 32% to a record 15,593, while sales in the domestic auto market rose by an impressive 8% to 79,530 vehicles.

Tata Motors, at its 75,151 units (inclusive of the export figures), registered a sales growth of 38% in March 2010 as compared to 54,452 vehicles in the corresponding period last year. The company's domestic sales are up by 35% at 71,046 units as compared to the same month last year. Coming to Hyundai Motor India, the company reported its highest-ever auto sales since 1998 (when it sold 24,754 units of Santro, Hyundai Motor's flagship small car) in the domestic automobile market at 31,501 units. This records a jump by 27.26% over the same period last year. From total sales' point of view, the company recorded a growth of 19.23% to 55,035 units as against 46,159 units in the corresponding period last month.

Total car sales volumes are equally emphatic for General Motors India. The company posted sales growth of 127% in March 2010, as against the same month a year ago. 11,330 vehicles were sold in March 2010 against 5,001 vehicles in March 2009.

Fiat India Automobiles reported a sales growth of 33% for the month of March 2010 over the same month last year. During this period, the company sold 2,361 vehicles (including exports) as compared to 1,780 vehicles in March 2009.

Mahindra & Mahindra reported healthy sales figures at 41,814 units led by growth in the tractor segment at 52.6% year-over-year (yoy). This was further supplemented by the 40.2% yoy growth that the automotive division registered during the period. Growth of the automotive segment was led by the utility vehicles (UV), light commercial vehicles (LCV) and three-wheeler segments at 24.2%, 89.8% and 102.3% yoy, respectively.

For Ford India, the last financial year came to an end in an equally good way. The company recorded a threefold increase in sales compared to the corresponding period last year, and the figures rose at 9,478 units, a growth by 203%, thanks to increased sales of Ford Figo.

Finally, in the two-wheeler category, Hero Honda registered 16.1% yoy growth for March 2010. Bajaj Auto led the league with a striking 74.7% yoy growth with its key brands, Pulsar and Discover performing strikingly well in this period of the financial.