Indian Automobile Sector Performance [Report]

Major automobile firms released their sales figures for the month of August. It has been a mixed result since in 4-wheeler sector Tata, M&M, Ford, Toyota Kirloskar are in the green while GM, Maruti Suzuki, Honda Siel, Hyundai are in the red. Lets take a look at how Indian Automobile companies fared in month of August.

Tata Motors – (Up by 12%)

Sales across various sector has been up compared to August last year, exceptions are the medium and heavy vehicles section and the numbers for Indigo have been down.

The frontrunner for Tata has been Nano with record sales of 6,500 in this month alone. Compared to August 2011 when it was 1,202. What helped Nano, is the rising fuel cost, high efficiency and Maruti’s Manesar issue.

Finally it is getting the kind of market it was expected to capture initially. It was marketed aggressively but not correctly. Middle class of India has come to its rescue.

Mahindra & Mahindra – (Up by 22%)

XUV 500 has propelled M&M to heights that Tata was initially eyeing with Sumo and its variants. Passenger vehicles (Verito and UVs) have registered a growth of 39.37% and exports are up by 56.12% (compared to August 2011). The surprise has been the facelift version of Verito which sold 2000+ units.

While XUV 500 benefitted majorly due to its new engineering and uber design aesthetics, Verito has benefitted from the fact that it is a trusty Logan in the inside. Logan basically didn’t reach the heights it could have due to its boxy, mundane looks, which they have changed to a certain extent in Verito series.

Ford – (Up by 16%)

This comes as a surprise considering that in June it was showing a declining trend in its game changer Figo and in July it remained steady at its position. Export has been up by 63% compared to August last year, but the domestic sale stands at 6% which is still good considering that they haven’t launched any new car in a long time. Industry currently is waiting for the launch of Ecosport, which has an award winning engine and can be the new game changer for Ford.

Toyota Kirloskar – (Up by 20%)

2012 Innova and Fortuner were well received by the Indian market and it shows in their sales figures.

While it will be unjust to compare them with their predecessors but Fortuner sales are up by 44% and Innova’s by 50%. While Etios sales improved by a mere 3% but the figure stands at 5,698 for August 2012 which looks good.

Last month Toyota launched 2012 Camry, which for a change is locally assembled, received 111 bookings and 60 delivered as of now. This is better compared to the earlier Camry which 34 in August 2011.

GM – (Down by 17%)

While company bosses are blaming it on the market situation for the downward trend, there hasn’t been much action by GM apart from them promoting Spark. Chevrolet Cruze which was a refreshing car in its segment now is old and faces stiff competition from the current market leader in the segment Skoda Rapid.

Maruti Suzuki – (Down by 40.8%)

The month long lockdown at its Manesar plant took its toll.

The victims have been cars across the spectrum with small car segment down by 41.2% and Dzire down by 60.7%. Even exports fell by 72%. Hopefully Maruti gets its HR and the plant in place soon and back on the track. To a larger extent the downfall of Maruti has benefitted other companies.

Honda Siel – (Down by 21%)

Sales have been down at the Honda Siel Cars India majorly because of the hike in petrol prices. Honda doesn’t manufacture any diesel vehicle, and now diesel vehicles have caught up with petrol versions in the terms of mileage and refinement. This affects HSCI across all car segments. Honda Siel has been the biggest sufferer of Fuel price hike

Hyundai- (Down by 8%)

Here export has taken a toll by 23.4%, while domestic sales have been up by 5.9%.

The new Elantra got a nice response with 608 units, while Santa Fe and Sonata remain disappointing at 65 units and 19 units respectively. The growth in sales has been majorly attributed to the sales of diesel version of Verna, which now commands a loyal customer base.

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