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Auto cos post moderate sales growth in March

New Delhi: Automobile majors Hyundai Motor India, Mahindra & Mahindra and Ford India on Monday reported moderate growth in their domestic passenger vehicle sales in March.
Two-wheeler makers, led by market leader Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, posted robust growth during the month.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) said its domestic sales were 48,009 units last month against 44,757 units in March 2017, a growth rate of 7.3 per cent.
Similarly, M&M said sales of passenger vehicles stood at 26,555 units compared with 25,523 units in March 2017, up 4 per cent.
"With three of our critical new automotive launches lined up in 2018-19, we are confident of increasing our market share in the utility vehicle space," M&M President, Automotive Sector, Rajan Wadhera said.
Ford India said its domestic sales stood at 9,016 units in March as against 8,700 units in the year-ago month, up 3.63 per cent. Honda Cars India (HCIL), however, reported a 28.36 per cent decline in its domestic sales to 13,574 units in March. The company had sold 18,950 units in the year-ago month.
Likewise, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) reported a 9.11 per cent decline in domestic sales at 12,539 units in March as compared to 13,796 units in the same month last year.
On Sunday, market leader Maruti Suzuki India had reported domestic sales of 1,48,582 units, up 16.1 per cent from 1,27,999 units in March last year.
On the other hand, Tata Motors' passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market grew 31 per cent to 20,266 units last month.
In the two wheeler segment, Hero MotoCorp reported its highest ever monthly sales, clocking 7,30,473 units in March, a 20 per cent increase over the year-ago period.
The company had sold 6,09,951 units in the corresponding month last year.
For the 2017-18 fiscal, the company clocked its highest ever sales of 75,87,130 units, up 14 per cent as compared with sale of 66,64,240 units in 2016-17.
The second largest two-wheeler maker, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), reported a 20.3 per cent increase in March sales at 4,40,499 units. Bajaj Auto reported a 23 per cent increase in total sales at 3,34,348 units in March compared to 2,72,197 units during the same month a year ago.
Its domestic sales stood at 2,03,600 units against 1,69,279 units in the corresponding month last year, up 20 per cent.
Chennai-based TVS Motor Company reported a 27 per cent increase in total sales at 3,26,659 units in March. It had sold a total of 2,56,341 units in the same month of the previous year.
The company's total two-wheeler sales were at 3,15,765 units last month as against 2,50,979 units in March 2017, a growth of 25.8 per cent. The race for top honours in the utility vehicle segment between Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) intensified in FY2017-18 despite the market leader ending ahead of the homegrown rival.
While MSI ended the year with 2,53,759 units of UVs, including Vitara Brezza, Ertiga and S-Cross, M&M retailed a total of 2,33,915 units during the just ended financial year.
However, in the fourth quarter of 2017-18, M&M pipped MSI to capture the number one slot with 67,805 units sales against 63,781 units of the latter, according to figures shared by the companies.
M&M, which sells popular models such as Bolero, Scorpio, XUV500 and TUV300, had been the undisputed UV maker in the Indian market till 2016-17 when it sold a total of 2,22,541 units as against 1,95,741 units by MSI.
However, it was dethroned from the top spot by MSI when it launched Vitara Brezza in 2016.
In 2017-18, MSI dominated the UV sales for the first three quarters. The company MSI sold 57,125 units of utility vehicles while M&M sold 53,082 in the first quarter. In the second quarter also MSI stayed ahead with 67,123 units as compared to M&M's 61,516 units.
The trend continued in third quarter, as MSI retailed 65,730 units while M&M could manage only 51,512 units.
An MSI official said the growth of the company's UV segment has been driven by Vitara Brezza, S-Cross and Ertiga with demand still continuing to be strong as some of the model having weeks of waiting period.
There is still a waiting of around 42,000 units for the company's various UV models, the official added.
However, on the back of strong performance of models like Bolero and Scorpio, M&M ran ahead of MSI in the fourth quarter.
Commenting on development, M&M President Automotive Sector Rajan Vadhera said, "On the product front, power brands such as Bolero Power+ and the new Scorpio saw demand growing in FY18. While product and marketing interventions have brought increased traction for the TUV300 and the refreshed KUV100 NXT."
He also said a focussed rural strategy has led to increased network reach and penetration thereby "bringing 12 percent overall growth in upcountry markets".
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