Carmakers record festive boost

NEW DELHI:  Passenger vehicle sales recorded a sharp improvement in November, given a substantial boost by festive season demand, data from manufacturers showed on Tuesday. The month also saw two big commercial vehicle (CV) makers reporting growth after months of sluggish sales. 

Hyundai Motor recorded its highest ever November month domestic sales of 48 800 units, a growth of 9 per cent over last year, while Kia Motors reported 50 per cent year-on-year growth at 21,022 units. “While there is still a lot of uncertainty in the market due to the pandemic, the overall consumer sentiment has significantly improved and we are all prepared to offer a safe and hassle-free ownership experience to our customers,” said Kookhyun Shim, MD & CEO, Kia Motors India. 

Maruti Suzuki (MSIL), however, reported a dip. Maruti’s domestic PV sales fell 2 per cent y-o-y to 135,775 units in November. The carmaker had sold 163,656 units in October 2020. Japan’s Honda and Toyota reported 55 per cent and 2 per cent growth respectively, while Chinese-owned MG Motor reported 28.5 per cent growth. Homegrown Tata Motors reported 108 per cent growth in PV sales while Mahindra & Mahindra’s PV sales were up by 24 per cent. 

Two-wheeler makers, such as Hero MotorCorp, Honda 2Wheelrs, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor also reported robust sales numbers but it was CV manufacturers who recorded a comeback of sorts. After reporting several straight months of degrowth in sales figures—a sharp contraction in demand driven by sluggish economic activity even before the pandemic broke out—Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland reported a growth of 4 per cent y-o-y for the month of November 2020, selling 9,727 units.

Another leading commercial vehicle player Tata Motors reported a marginal dip of 5 per cent in domestic sales at 26,218 units last month while VECV sales grew by 5 per cent to 3088 units. It is to be noted that CV sales between April-November 2020 were down by around 50 per cent when compared with last year’s figures.