The festive season failed to lift car sales with market leader Maruti Suzuki and arch- rival Hyundai posting flat growth during October.
Apart from
Maruti's popular Dzire, which clocked 19.6- per cent growth during the month at 17,211 units, the company saw a decline in the demand for all other models, including Alto, Wagon R, Swift and Ritz.
The company sold 96,062 vehicles during the month, which was about the same as the 96,002 vehicles sold last October.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd ( HMIL) recorded a sale of 36,002 units during the month compared with 35,778 units in October 2012.
HMIL senior vice- president, marketing, Rakesh Srivastava termed it "as a challenging market environment", but said the new i10 Grand is doing well with sales of 11,519 units during the month.
Other select models that have notched up good sales include Honda's entry- level sedan Amaze at 9,564 units during the month enabling the company to post a 39- per cent growth albeit on a low base.
Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice- president (V-P), marketing, Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL), said, "HCIL is starting a third shift for the production of Amaze in our Greater Noida plant from this month to reduce waiting period and help in quick delivery of cars." Ford's compact sport utility vehicle EcoSport is another new model that has done well in the market enabling the US carmaker to post a 21- per cent increase in sales during October at 9,163 units.
General Motors (GM) India reported 14.22- per cent rise in sales at 7,715 units during the month.
"The marginal sales rebound seen last month is on account of the festival season," GM India V- P P. Balendran said.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor reported 10.94- per cent increase in total sales at 15,576 units in October.
Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra saw domestic sales decline by 6.87 per cent in October at 47,787 units.
Courtesy: Mail Today
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