The leading car manufacturer of India seems to be getting all more dominant in the Indian car market as Maruti Suzuki has released the official sales figures for the month of August, wherein the it registered an increase of 61.24 per cent at 87,323 units being sold as compared to the 2012 performance of 54,154 units. In a statement, the company said its domestic sales have seen an increase of 51 per cent during the period with 76,018 units against 50,129 units in the same month of previous year.
Apart from it, the auto maker told that sales of hatchbacks like Alto, A-Star and WagonR have risen by 45.1 per cent. It is learnt that Maruti Suzuki has sold 32,019 units of these vehicles as compared to last year's figure of 22,062 units during August 2013. Models like Swift, Estilo and Ritz have seen a spurt in their sales by over two-fold from 17,409 units sold in August 2013 to 6,059 units a year earlier. In particular, the Swift DZire model has been the main catalyst for deriving sales of the company with its demand rising over four folds during the month of August. The company told that it has sold 13,723 units of its compact sedan Dzire as against 3,085 units sold last year in August.
However, on the other hand the sales for mid-sized sedan SX4 registered a steep drop of 22.1 per cent on comparing the figures of August 2012 and year ago period. Maruti Suzuki told that it has sold 348 units of the car in August 2013 as compared to last year's performance of 447 units. The utility vehicle segment comprising of Gypsy, Ertiga and Grand Vitara showed a decline in sales by 33.7 per cent with figures for August 2013 standing at 4,563 units as compared to 6,883 units sold last year in the same period last year. The company also gave information regarding its exports, which too surged from 4,025 units of last year to 11,305 units sold in 2013, taking the month of August as the yardstick for comparison.
However, it must be noted that the production of Maruti Suzuki took a hit last year because of the violence that took place at its Manesar plant, wherein a company official was killed. During the course of events, the production of best selling models like Swift and Swift DZire was halted and the Manesar facility was shut down, which in turn effected the sales of the company. Currently, Maruti Suzuki is going full steam in its production and it was expected that the company might register a huge increase in its sales for the month of August 2013.
In the meanwhile, car sales in India have now dropped for a record ninth consecutive month in July with an annual decline of 7.4 per cent, according to the data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Industry experts feel that the main deterers for this shunted growth are rising fuel costs and high interest rates, which have contributed to the prevalent negative consumer sentiment.
