Toyota, Honda race ahead in September sales

Japanese auto companies are having a dream run on the Indian roads with both Honda and Toyota witnessing surging sales in the first half of ...

Japanese auto companies are having a dream run on the Indian roads with both Honda and Toyota witnessing surging sales in the first half of the current fiscal.

While Honda Siel Cars India (HSCIL), makers of City and Accord, has posted a 17.8 per cent growth in sales during September 2002 owing to increased demand of its mid-size car ‘City’, Toyota has said that its September sales are up over 27 per cent over last year.

The company sold 1,354 cars during the review month as against 1,149 cars in September last year. Sales of the ‘City’ car jumped 25.8 per cent to 1,203 units (956 units in September 2001) but that of luxury sedan ‘Accord’ dropped 21.7 per cent to 151 units (193 units). Sales during April-September 2002 went up by 26.3 per cent to 6,318 units against 5,000 units a year ago, the spokesperson said. The September sales were also a 12.1 per cent rise over 1,207 cars sold in August this year. Japanese auto giant Honda Motor Co owns 99 per cent stake in HSCIL with the remaining one per cent being held by Siel Ltd.

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Similarly, the new look ‘My Luxury-New Qualis’ from the Toyota stable, launched in the first week of September 2002, seems to have made a dent into the premium car customer and MPV segment, if one considers the sales figures for the month. Since its launch, the company has got more than 3,400 customer orders and has delivered 2903 units compared to that of 2273 units sold in September 2001. Says Toyota General Manager (Marketing), Sandip Singh: ‘‘The new Qualis has got a good response from customers and we have seen a growth of around 27.7 per cent in sales compared to September 2001. We have been able to get a share of the premium car segment with introduction of the new Qualis.”

The maximum units sold is the 8-seater deluxe diesel model with dual or single A/C. The new Qualis has also got a set of MPV customers going for the upgraded model, he added. The company is expecting to maintain the growth rate of 25 to 30 per cent in the coming months too, Singh said. Geographic region wise, South contributes 35 per cent of the Qualis sales, North 33 per cent, West 29 per cent and the rest is sold in the East.

The new Qualis is available at a price range of Rs 5.3 lakh to Rs 8 lakh for the diesel variants and a petrol version priced at Rs 8.5 lakh.