Despite difficult conditions many car makers posted healthy profits in June 2012. The positive numbers of all the manufacturers can be attributed to their new launches and availability of economical diesel models in the range. However, the total sales were lowest in June since October 2011, forcing many manufacturers including Maruti, Hyundai and Tata to halt production to keep the inventory in check.
For now, let us look at the sales reports of manufacturers who have done well in comparision to same month last year.
Maruti Suzuki: The country’s largest car maker registered 20.30 per cent hike in sales as compared to June 2011. Twenty percent is quite a figure considering Maruti holds about 40 per cent share in the Indian market. The hike is mainly due to the Ertiga (5,400 units), which was introduced earlier this year and will continue to bolster Maruti’s numbers for a few months. Another interesting trend this month was that sales of Maruti small cars continued to drop, while hatchbacks like the Swift and the Ritz were doing better due to availability of diesel variants. Maruti confirmed that the sales of small cars like the Alto, A-Star dropped 10 per cent, while the Swift and the Ritz sales increased over 40 per cent.
Audi: Audi sales soared 76 per cent to 718 units last month. The compact crossover Q3 was the main contributor as all 500 units were booked in a mere 5 days. The company is now offering 500 more units of the Q?, but since these will come to India as CBU the deliveries will take a while.
Nissan: Nissan sales are up 155 per cent as the company managed to sell over 3,000 units of the Sunny sedan last month. Nissan also sold 1091 units of Micra to attain this number.
Renault: The Pulse which was launched at the 2012 Auto Expo is currently the only Renault car in India under Rs 10 lakh. The French car maker sold 536 units of the hatchback and 208 units of the Koleos to reach 787 units against 290 units in June 2011.
Toyota and Mahindra: Both the utility car majors managed 20 per cent growth last month. While the XUV500 propelled Mahindra numbers to 19,529 units; targeting fleet cab market improved Toyota Etios sales. Despite costing Rs 10 lakh plus, the Innova is still the seventh highest (6,785 units) selling car in the country.
