Carmakers see steady growth, bikes zoom

Ahead of the budget that is likely to tax diesel cars more, domestic car sales grew steadily in February as the big three of India — Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors — saw modest sales growth.

Spurred by the launch of a smaller and reasonably cheaper variant of its entry level sedan Swift Dzire, the market leader Maruti saw its sales grow by 6% in the domestic market to 107,653 units as against 101,543 units last year. Dzire sales grew by over 58% at 15,000 units, an all time high figure for the car in a month.

Arch rival and distant number 2, Hyundai Motor India, also saw its sales grow by over 12% to almost 37,000 units. Despite a slow start, it was its new small car Eon that brought in numbers for the Korean carmaker.

“Even in the tough market situation Eon sales have helped us to achieve the highest ever domestic sales,” said Arvind Saxena, director, marketing and sales, HMIL.

Homegrown auto major Tata Motors saw its sales grow by over 9%, even as its ultra low cost car Nano stayed below the psychological 10,000 unit mark. Japanese carmakers Toyota and Honda posted high double digit growth while Ford, GM, Fiat and Volkswagen saw their sales decline as lack of new cars affected their performance. Honda saw its sales grow for the first time since October last year spurred by its premium sedan City.

In the two-wheeler space, market leader Hero MotoCorp continued to grow robustly even as it was upstaged by former alliance partners and heavyweights in the scooter segment, Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India. Hero grew by almost 11% as compared to HMSI's 41%.