Carmakers face summer heat with subdued sales

Domestic car sales remained muted in May with only Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors clocking double digit growth while Hyundai and Honda posted a marginal increase in sales over the same month last year.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Ford India, on the other hand reported a fall in sales during the month.

Maruti Suzuki India saw domestic sales rising 13 per cent in May to 1,02,359 units mainly due to the increase in demand for mini segment cars including Alto and WagonR which jumped 20.6 per cent to 35,062 units.

However, sales of the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz, Dzire declined 5.7 per cent to 41,926 units during the month. Arch rival Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) sold 37,450 units in May which represents a 3.4 per cent increase on the back of its new models Elite and Active.

HMIL senior vice-president (sales and marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said the growth during the month was achieved in a market experiencing low growth with decreasing contribution of rural and diesel vehicles sales.

Tata Motors sales of passenger vehicles in the domestic market in May went up 20.7 per cent to 11,138 units from 9,230 units in the same month last year.

Tata Motors president (passenger vehicles business) Mayank Pareek said the automotive market is still on a slow recovery path. Interest rates have not come down and many customers are still not engaging in taking up loans. Honda Cars India reported a marginal increase in domestic sales at 13,431 units in May as compared to 13,362 units in same period of previous year.

Utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra saw its sales decline 6 per cent in the domestic market. The company sold 33,369 units last month as against 35,499 units in the same month of last year.

M&M chief executive Pravin Shah said: "The auto industry has been showing signs of recovery and it is important that factors like an interest rate cut if considered, would accelerate growth."