The sales for the month of February haven’t been dramatically different from before. The wholesale numbers have increased marginally, but without much change in the overall composition. There are still a couple of cars that have done exceptionally well and two others that tanked. Here are the highlights on the hits and missed for the previous month.
The Mahindra KUV100 has turned out to be an instant success. Launched on January 15, the company had already registered 7,900 wholesales in the first month and a half, with 4,486 units registered in February itself.
The Datsun GO is the other model that has done really well last month. The hatchback has been selling in paltry numbers for last many months and it is after a while the sales have crossed 1,000 units in a month. The GO registered wholesales of 1,414 units; not impressive compared to few of its rivals, but it is still close to 100 per cent growth over January 2016.
On the other side, the Renault Duster sales have dipped to 641 units. It was probably in anticipation to the launch of the new version with AMT transmission, plus dealers must have run out of stocks. The prices of the new versions are already announced and deliveries will start later this month.
Ford plans don’t seem to have worked to well for the Figo Aspire. The compact sedan sales are down to 855 units from over 3,500 units few months ago. The segment is thriving and despite offering a very sound mechanical package, the Aspire has failed to get customers. Ford will have to rework its strategies to build sales again.
March is going to be a tough month for the auto industry; the prices of most cars have gone up after the Union Budget 2016-17. It will be interesting to see how the customers respond to the hike and whether there is any shift in preference to small cars, which are least affected by the new ruling. Stay tuned for the next month’s report.
