Hyundai Motor India Limited, the second leading car maker in the country is expecting that the overall growth of car sales for the fiscal year 2012-13 will be restricted to a flat 6 percent to 8 percent further contributing to the slow growth rate of the economy.
Mr. Arvind Saxena, Director - Marketing & Sales, HMIL, was quoted as saying, "Interest rates, fuel prices and optimism has deteriorated in last 12 months. In spite of India being a low penetration market, the growth is expected to be stunted this year."
He further said that the rising fuel costs, mounting interest rates, declining disposable incomes and the general perception about the economy is combinedly lead to drastic fall in the car sales in India. Moreover, the rise in prices of the automaker’s portfolio owing to the excise duty hike post Union Budget release and the surge in local tax rates has further fuelled the car sales to decline.
The company had comparatively attained an impressive sales growth of 7.7 percent in the last year despite such detrimental economic factors and registered a sale of around 3.87 lakhs units in the domestic market while the exports stood at 2.42 lakhs units.
With the persisting economic conditions, the automaker is gearing up to expand its dealer distribution network from around 180 to 300 by the end of 2012. Hyundai Motor is planning to achieve high sales growth with new outlets coupled with new car launches and is aiming to at least maintain its market share of around 19.2 percent.
