Car sales increase in October after the new launch of Hyundai Santro

Hyundai sales in October were dominated by strong demand for the new Santro and other models such as Creta, Elite i20 and Grand i10. Photo: PTI

Mumbai: Pbadenger car sales edged up in October after three consecutive months of declines, mainly due to the launch of the new Hyundai Santro compact sedan. Auto manufacturers said on Thursday that they remained cautious about the sector's situation over Diwali next week.

] The top five Indian automakers – Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Hyundai Motor India Ltd., Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., Tata Motors Ltd and Honda Cars India Ltd. – sold 230,870 vehicles last month, up 2.06 % compared to the previous year.

While car sales had increased at a steady pace since last November, stimulated by new launches and a recovery in rural demand, they slowed between July and September due to a variety of factors, ranging from a high base to July 2017, accompanied by erratic monsoons and a deterioration of the macroeconomic situation in September, which continued until October

The holiday season in India, which began with Onam at early September, is one of the most important periods of the year for car manufacturers, buyers consider that it is auspicious to make expensive purchases, such as cars , gold and real estate.

Up to now this year, consumer confidence over the holiday season has been low and has even resulted in a drop in retail sales, due to factors such as higher inflation, interest rates, insurance premiums and gasoline prices, as well as irregular monsoons and devastating floods in Kerala.

Domestic sales growth in the pbadenger car segment is lower than a base in October 2017 due to a delay in Hetal Gandhi, director of the Crisil Research rating agency, said that the festival season was up one month this year.

It is estimated that the cost of owning a vehicle has increased by about 9% over the previous year. Maruti Suzuki, India's largest automaker, announced a slight decline in its national car sales to 122,280 units in October, from 122,459 a year earlier. Maruti Suzuki's car sales have fallen in three of the last four months. Figures exclude sales of Maruti Suzuki Omni and Eeco vans and the Super Carry light utility vehicle. Despite the introduction of models such as the hatchback Swift, the compact sedan Dzire and the midsize sedan Ciaz, Maruti Suzuki might not be able to reach its double-digit volume goal for this exercise, badysts said.

which accounts for most of Maruti Suzuki's sales, rose 3.7% to 64,789 units in October. While sales of entry-level cars Alto and WagonR also rose 1.1% to 32,835 units last month, its sport utility vehicles including the Vitara Brezza and S-Cross models recorded a decline of 11% to 20,764 units.

Meanwhile, the launch of new Santro strengthens the monthly sales of Hyundai India, the local unit of the South Korean company recording an increase of 4.87% of its domestic sales to 52 001 units in October.

Other popular Hyundai models, such as the Creta compact SUV, as well as the Grand i10 and Elite i20 hatchback models, also supported sales, said Vikas Jain, National Sales Manager at Hyundai India .

Mahindra and Mahindra posted a 2.6% increase in sales, to 24,066 units despite the launch of the Marazzo multipurpose vehicle.

Rajan Wadhera, president of the automotive sector of Mahindra, said that "the car industry has witnessed moderate retail sales" in recent months, due to "weak climate of purchase of consumers. " "Therefore, one must be cautious about how the holiday season ends up being," he added.

Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities Analysts (India) Pvt. Ltd. expects a "slight" improvement in the second part of the holiday season, which falls in November, fuel prices having been reduced every day throughout the country for nearly a fortnight.

In addition, about 65% of the sales of the holiday season are accounted for in the second half of the season, said Kapil Singh and Siddhartha Bera in a note of October 30.

"If this improvement does not happen, there will be an additional risk of volume growth in the coming months," they added.

Gandhi in Crisil said that despite a better production of kharif, profitability of farms remains a watchdog key in the coming months, which could have a significant impact on the feelings of rural people . She expects the demand during this holiday season to remain muted compared to the previous year.