The month of June was not as good as April and May for the car manufacturers. After sporting back-to-back increasing growth in the two months, June saw a gradual dip in the sales of cars. This was mainly attributed to the weak sentiments in the rural areas followed by a weak rainfall. Also, the base effect arising out of the manufacturer’s dispatches being pushed during the same month last year overlying the government’s decision to end excise benefits led to the weak growth. In April and May, the growth was 16 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively.
Maruti Suzuki posted a 1.8 per cent hike despite the overall fall of the industry with 114756 units against the 102626 units in the same period. During the first quarter of the year, the company posted a growth of 13.8 per cent with sales of 341329 units, including the export numbers.
Hyundai Motors, which is the second largest carmaker, has registered domestic sales of 36300 units in June itself. The number helped it post a growth of 8.3 per cent from the last year. However, the total sales were down to a small 3.1 per cent because of lower export numbers.
Rakesh Srivastava, the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, HMIL said, "In a market bearing low traction, consistent demand of Elite i20, Grand, Xcent led to Hyundai’s volumes growing by 8.3% and with the upcoming launch of global SUV Creta, we are confident of sustained growth." Incidentally, the Creta will be launched in the Indian market on July 21, 2015 and will provide a tough competition to Mahindra Scorpio, Renault Duster and Maruti S-Cross (once launched).
Honda Cars India also registered positive monthly sales at 12.65 per cent with sale of 18380 units as of June. Though there were some production issues, the company could manage a double digit growth. Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales said that the company will increase its presence in India with the launch of the new Jazz. The new model is expected to hit the markets on July 8.
On the other hand, Mahindra & Mahindra posted a negative growth with a 15 per cent decline from June 2014. The units sold during this period were 18635, which came down to 15880 units in June 2015. Pravin Shah, President and Chief Executive of the company said, “With a normal monsoon till date, an overall positive sentiment and a slew of new launches in the automotive industry, we expect buoyancy in demand going forward.”
Toyota also faced a dip during the period after selling only 10464 units, down by 12.87 per cent against the 12010 units in June 2014. N Raja, Director and Senior Vice President of the Sales and Marketing said, “We sold 10,464 units in the domestic market last month, due to limited production on account of the planned shutdown. We deeply regret the inconvenience caused to our customers due to this.”
Ford India was also among the negative growth posters in the running month. Anurag Mehrotra, Ford Executive Director said, "With three new products planned in next nine months, we will usher in excitement with the introduction of our compact sedan Figo Aspire and are well on-course give customers even more reasons to visit Ford showrooms in the near future."
Volkswagen saw a noteworthy jump in sales in June 2015, after selling 4039 units, a rise of 31 per cent against the 3079 units in the last year. It was mainly attributed to the success of the new launches, Vento and Jetta in the sedan segment. Michael Mayer, Director of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars said, “We have witnessed our 5th consecutive increase in monthly sales, and we attribute this achievement to our recently launched New Vento. The growth of 31% in the month of June 2015 is higher than the industry average, and we remain confident of continuing to improve our sales figures over the coming months.”
