Automobile sales in India started on a high note this fiscal with cars and bikes witnessing an over 16 per cent surge in demand in April even as commercial vehicles saw numbers gain to the maximum, rising by a whopping 68.5 per cent.
Car sales in April stood at 74,536 units against 63,932 units in the same month last year as nine of the 11 companies, including market leader Maruti Udyog, Hyundai, Ford, General Motors and Honda, saw demand perk up following the eight per cent excise duty cut on small cars as well as overall healthy demand, according to figures released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
Car sales in the just-concluded fiscal 2005-06 had seen a slowdown, witnessing a modest single digit 7.55 per cent growth though on a high base year.
On the two-wheeler side, motorcycles continued their strong run as sales were up nearly 17 per cent at 5,12,381 units against 4,38,325 units in April 2005. Segment leaders Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto led the charge while others like TVS Motors, Yamaha also saw numbers rise.
April also saw the new entrant Suzuki sell 3,675 units.
However, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India and Kinetic Engineering saw numbers go down while LML, which is facing tough times and looking to induct a strategic investor for changing sagging fortunes, did not provide the numbers for the month.
However, just as bikes maintained the healthy demand, scooter/scooterettee growth witnessed a sharp 16.1 per cent decline. Sales stood at 65,679 units in April 2006 against 78,313 units in the same month last year, SIAM said.
Interestingly, even as Bajaj Auto maintained the downslide in demand, segment leader HMSI also could not maintain the tempo as sales fell to 37,268 units from 44,008 units in April 2005. Numbers also fell for TVS Motor and Kinetic, SIAM said.
Moped sales grew 14.2 per cent at 27,121 units against 23,735 units in April 2005.
On the commercial vehicles side, it was a month of high growth as sales grew a massive 68.5 per cent in April at 28,475 units against 16,890 units in the same month last year.
Medium and Heavy goods carriers spurred the demand as sales here grew a whopping 85.9 per cent at 16,194 units against 8,709 units in April 2005. Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland led the momentum as demand for both shot up sharply.
On the light commercial vehicles side, sales grew by 48.4 per cent at 10,854 units from 7,313 units in April 2005. The Tata sub one-tonne mini truck 'Ace' clearly created the demand as the company sold a total of 6,683 units (2,397) at a growth of 178 per cent.
Three-wheelers also saw healthy growth in demand as sales saw a 21.8 per cent rise at 26,595 units against 21,827 units in April last year. While sales of passenger carriers moved up by 22.7 per cent at 15,300 units, numbers of goods carriers 20.5 per cent growth at 11,295 units, SIAM said.
On the export front, total automobile shipments grew 28.3 per cent in April at 75,917 units against 59,132 units in the same month last year. Car exports were up 47.5 per cent at 15,497 units while sales of bikes in overseas markets grew by 39 per cent at 39,348 units.
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