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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, JULY 7: Market leader Maruti has recorded a 17 per cent sales jump in the first quarter of the current fiscal despite no sales during May in the Delhi region, country’s biggest car market, and one-week plant shut-down.
Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL), which has a market share of over 70 per cent in the passenger car market, sold 87,143 vehicles (excluding Gypsy) during April-June 1999-2000 as against recorded sales of 74,385 vehicles in the same period of 1998-99, company sources said.
The effect of a substantial price cut announced by the company in last December on Omni and 800 cc models was visible even in the first quarter of the fiscal as MUL registered a sharp 46 per cent sales growth in case of Omni vans followed by a 15 per cent rise in sales of 800 cc model.
MUL sold a total 18,914 units of Omni vans during the first quarter of the current fiscal as compared to 12,963 vans in April-June of the previous fiscal, sources said.
Sales of the base model 800 cc, accounting about 53 per cent of the total sales of the company, was recorded at 46,000 units during the review period as against 40,000 units sold in the same period of the previous fiscal.
Company could not sell its vehicles in the national capital region (NCR) in May as the Delhi government had stopped registration of all private vehicles following the Supreme Court’s order on emission norms. It had also stopped production for a week in June due to annual shut-down.
Despite hotting up competition in the premium small car segment due to the entry of several new players, Maruti managed to register a six per cent growth in sales of its Zen car model during the first quarter of the current fiscal.
Maruti sold 17,500 Zen cars during April-June of 1999-2000 as against 16,500 units in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The segment has witnessed entry of several new cars in the recent past including Hyundai’s Santro, Daewoo’s Matiz, Telco’s Indica and Fiat’s Uno car models, giving tough competition to well established Zen model of Maruti.
Euro-II emission norms compliant Santro and Matiz models have an edge over Zen as it is only conforming to Euro-1 norms at present.
MUL’s mid-sized car model Esteem could not perform on the same lines as there was a zero per cent growth in sales during the review period.
The company sold 4,000 units of Esteem in the first quarter of 1999-2000, the same number of vehicles sold in the corresponding period last fiscal.
The same trend was witnessed by Gypsy model as sales were stagnant at 1400 units during the period. MUL sold a total 3.03 lakh vehicles during the fiscal 1998-99.
