Fuel, interest cost subdue passenger car major’s April sales

New Delhi/Chennai, May 1 (IANS) High interest and fuel cost along with liquidity constraints continued to subdue passenger car major -- Maruti and Hyundai's -- domestic sales in April.

On Wednesday, automobile major Maruti Suzuki India said overall sales, including exports for April declined by 17.2 per cent to 143,245 units from 172,986 units' off-take recorded during the corresponding period of the last year.

The company's domestic sales decreased 18.7 per cent on an year-on-year basis to 134,068 units in April.

Although the domestic passenger vehicle sales was lower by 19.6 per cent to 131,385 units on a YoY basis, the company's sales of light commercial vehicles in the country rose 50.2 per cent to 2,319 units.

The automobile major's exports zoomed by 14.6 per cent in April to 9,177 units from 8,008 units which were shipped out during the corresponding month of last fiscal.

On its part, Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) reported a marginal decline of 1.6 per cent in its overall sales including exports for April 2019.

The company's overall sales during the month under review declined to 58,805
from 59,744 units sold during April 2018.

Additionally, domestic sales during the month under review edged-lower by 10.1 per cent to 42,005 units from 46,735 units sold during the corresponding period of 2018.

However, the company's exports went up by 29.1 per cent to 16,800 units from 13,009 units shipped abroad in April 2018.

According to Sridhar V., Partner with Grant Thornton India: "Dip in the sales of Maruti and Hyundai off a higher base indicates lack of pickup in domestic sales at the beginning of this FY for the passenger car segment."

"One of the primary cause could be increase in price effected on April 1 and volatility in fuel price. While the sentiments are still down there is active interest in new models and a slight uptick in UVs."