Car sales jumped 18% in FY05

Indian passenger cars sales rose 17.7 per cent in the domestic market to 8,19,918 units in the financial year ending March 31, 2005 even as overall passenger vehicle sales crossed the one million mark.

Utility vehicle sales in the period saw a growth of 20.4 per cent to 1,76,339 units against 1,46,388 units in 2003-04 while multi-purpose vehicles saw a growth of 9.2 per cent on sale of 65,033 units, according to figures released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

Bouyed by the growth in the economy and easy finance options, most of the carmakers saw good demand in the market.

Top carmaker Maruti Udyog's sales moved up 16.5 per cent to 4,17,179 units while Tata Motors, the number two carmaker, saw sales moving up an impressive 33.9 per cent to 1,44,827 units.

Hyundai India, which has seen a spurt in demand in export markets, recorded domestic sales at 1,41,830 units against 1,29,472 units in 2003-04.

Car sales in March this year were up 18.5 per cent to 89,493 units against 75,476 units in March 2004.

In the motorcycle segment, Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto powered sales to a 19 per cent growth in 2004-05 to 49,64,442 units against 41,70,445 units in the previous fiscal.

Sales in March stood at 4,36,727 units against 3,69,309 units in the same month in 2004, witnessing a growth of 18.2 per cent.

It was Hero Honda and Bajaj which saw the sales graph move up as they cut into sales of other bikemakers. Hero Honda, which increased its market share by two per cent to almost 50 per cent, had sales of 25,57,385 units in the domestic market. Bajaj Auto's sales crossed the million mark in the domestic market to 13,44,922 units in 2004-05 against 9,73,307 units in the previous year, a growth of 38.1 per cent.

Most of the other bikemakers like TVS Motors, Yamaha, Kinetic and LML, however, saw sales move down.

Scooters could manage only a single digit 4.2 per cent growth in sales to 9,23,566 units against 8,86,295 units in 2003-04.

Even as the traditional models of Bajaj Auto witnessed a decline, most of the numbers in this segment, which also includes scooterettes, came in from players like Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India and Kinetic Motors.

HMSI, which contributed nearly half to overall sales in the segment, sold 4,50,967 units at a growth of 45.4 per cent.