Tags:
Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, DECEMBER 1: The passenger car industry continued its robust performance for the current fiscal as sales of vehicles shot up in November as compared to the same month of previous year. While India’s largest car maker Maruti Udyog recorded a 76 per cent sales growth as compared to a recession-hit November in 1998, sales of Telco’s Indica went up by 9.9 per cent in November with sales of 5,214 cars, over the previous month’s sales of 4,744 cars.
On the other hand, Daewoo Motors – makers of small car Matiz – registered a meagre 3.4 per cent sales rise at 3,370 cars in November as compared to 3,259 units the previous month. "In October 1999, DMIL had sold 3,259 cars, out of which Matiz sales stood at 2,940," Daewoo Motors India Ltd said. The company, a subsidiary of Korea’s Daewoo group, said an increase in the capacity of Daewoo plants in Korea had improved supplies to Daewoo Motors India Ltd.
Hyundai Motors sold 53,557 units of Santros till November this year, making it second largest small car manufacturer in the country. If sales of Accent are also added, HMIL’s total sales turn out to be 62,675. On the other hand, MUL recorded a 25 per cent growth for the first eight months of this fiscal at 2.52 lakh units over 2.04 lakh units during the corresponding period last year.
In November alone, MUL sold 32,155 units against 18,241 units in the same month the previous year. While MUL sold 7,226 Zen in November, rival Santro managed to sell 6,301 units. Zen’s sales grew by 40 per cent on year to year basis, while that of Santro rose by 83 per cent. Sales of Matiz, on the other hand, stood at 3139 units.
In Maruti’s other models, sales of Maruti 800 went up by 87 per cent at 16,178 units in November, while Esteem grew by more than 50 per cent at 1,184 units. Sales of Omni shot up 110 per cent to 7,518 units. During the first eight months of this fiscal, Zen’s sales increased by 18 per cent, while that of Maruti 800 and Omni went up by 25 per cent and 36 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, Telco started fresh orders for Indica on a first-come-first-served basis for the year 2000 at all dealerships for a delivery period not exceeding eight weeks. The company would be completing this month the servicing of bookings for Indica that had been accepted in January 1999.
With this, Indica has achieved a cumulative sale of 33,409 cars since launch and a sale of 31,243 cars in the first eight months of the current financial year. It had accepted bookings of 60,000 Indicas last year but till date, the company has been unable to give deliveries of about 27,000 cars.
The previous highest sales was registered in September 1999 when Telco sold 5,044 cars, the release said. Tata Engineering claimed that Indica’s market share rose to an all time high of 10.2 per cent of the total passenger market in a month.
