The country’s top auto makers ended the fiscal on a high as all major players posted growth in their March sales, except for Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Honda Cars India.
FY18 had been quite an eventful one for the sector with introduction of BS IV fuel standard and GST in the country. Autoville had to withstand the rise in the cess rates and the tax on completely knocked down (CKD) units.
The country’s largest passenger car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India, reported 15 percent jump in its total sales volumes for March 2018. The company sold total 160,598 units in March 2018. It had sold a total of 139,763 units in March 2017. Total sales for the company in March included 148,582 units in the domestic market and 12,016 units in exports. The company ended 2017-18 with its highest-ever total sales of 1,779,574 units, a growth of 13.4 percent against 1,568,603 units in 2016-17. The 2017-18 sales figures comprise the highest- ever domestic sales of 1,653,500 units and export sales of 126,074 units. The company’s passenger cars sales increased 13.3 percent to 110,717 units. The utility vehicles sale increased by 24.3 percent at 22,764 and vans sales were up 17.7 percent at 13,689 units.
The mini segment that consists of models like Maruti Suzuki Alto and WagonR saw an increase of 21.1 percent as the company sold about 37,511 units in March 2018 compared to 30,973 units in the same month last year. The compact segment increased sales by 13.5 percent. Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 68,885 units in this space as compared to 60,699 lakh units in March 2017. Other popular cars in this segment are Swift, Celerio, Baleno and Dzire. The company also sold over 4,321 units of its sedan Ciaz as compared to 4,918 units in March 2017, a decline of 12.1 percent. The sales of utility vehicles were dominated by Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza which continued to rise by over 24.3 percent. Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 22,764 units last month. This also includes the sales of Gypsy, Ertiga and S-Cross.
This story is from the April 2018 edition of Steel Insights.
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This story is from the April 2018 edition of Steel Insights.
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