Chennai/Kolkata, Sep 1 (IANS) Improved monsoon and new product launches helped the automobile industry improve the sales in August, which are set to get a further boost in the ensuing festival season, industry experts said on Thursday.
"The improved spread of monsoon as well as new product launches have helped the auto industry perform positively. Coupled with this, the uncertainty surrounding diesel vehicles has been lifted by the honourable Supreme Court giving the customer the choice to buy his preferred vehicle which will help improve sentiments going forward," Pravin Shah, President and Chief Executive (Automotive) Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, said.
"At Mahindra we are happy to have garnered an overall growth of 14 per cent and a growth of 29 per cent in UVs (utility vehicles) during the last month (August) and we hope that the ensuing festive season will give us a further boost," Shah added.
In August, M&M sold 40,591 vehicles, including passenger and commercial vehicles and three-wheelers.
"The next three months of festive season should see some positive growth in the automotive sector mainly because of the good monsoon, bonanza to government employees under the seventh pay commission and some attractive discounts offered by OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) on few models," Abdul Majeed, Partner-Price Waterhouse, was quoted as saying in a statement on sales trend for automobile companies.
"The new compact SUV (sports utility vehicle) models will entice customers to buy these vehicles. First-time customers will prefer petrol version of the vehicles compared to diesel because of the uncertainty around these vehicles in the medium to long term," he added.
On its part, India's leading car-maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd logged 12 per cent growth in sales in August.
Maruti Suzuki sold 132,211 units (119,931 domestic/12,280 exports) in August against 117,864 units (106,781/11,083) during August 2015.
While the sales of utility vehicles zoomed in August to 16,806 units up by 114.5 per cent, the mid-size car segment (Ciaz) the compact segment (Swift, Ritz, Baleno, Celerio and Dzire) and the van segment also logged sales growth.
However, Maruti Suzuki saw negative growth in its mini segment (Alto, WagonR) and super compact segment (Dzire Tour) in August as compared to sales logged in August 2015.
The country's second largest car-maker Hyundai Motor India Ltd registered a total sales of 59,707 units registering nine per cent volume growth over 2015 August numbers.
Ford India Ltd said it sold 26,408 units (domestic 8,548 units, exports 17,860 units) in August up from 21,520 units (domestic 8,331 units, exports 13,189 units) sold in August 2015.
On the other hand, Honda Cars India Ltd's domestic sales went down to 13,941 units in August from 15,655 units logged in August 2015.
Meanwhile, commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland Ltd sold a total of 10,897 units in August, down from 11,544 units sold in August 2015.
While the sales of light commercial vehicles went up by two per cent in August to 2,696 units, the sales of medium, heavy commercial vehicles went down eight per cent to 8,201 units for Ashok Leyland.
The players in the two and three-wheeler segment logged good sales growth in August.
World's largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp Ltd sold 616,424 units as compared to 480,537 units sold in the corresponding month in 2016.
"The company will launch 15 new products across segments in its domestic and global markets this fiscal, out of which three motorcycles will be introduced in the domestic market before the festive season," a company statement said.
Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India sold a total of 492,416 units in August over 395,196 unit sales in August 2015. Honda continues to lead the volume growth in the two-wheeler industry.
TVS Motor Company sold 227,653 units up from 274,303 units sold in August 2015 while India Yamaha Motor sold 74,868 units up from 61,440 units.
High capacity motorbike maker Eicher Motors Ltd logged 32 per cent sales growth in August to touch 55,721 units.
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