Maruti and Hyundai drive yearly sales to record highs

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) and Hyundai Motor India on Friday reported their respective best ever annual sales in the fiscal ended March 31, leading the auto sector towards the recovery path. Mahindra & Mahindra and Honda Cars India (HCIL) also posted a sales growth in 2015-16.

For the 2015-16 fiscal, MSI posted sales of 14,29,248 units, a growth of 10.6 per cent. This comprises highest ever domestic sales of 13,05,351 units and 1,23,897 units of exports. "We posted record (domestic) sales in 2015-16. While the industry grew by around 7 per cent, we grew 11.5 per cent during the fiscal," MSI Executive Director Marketing and Sales R S Kalsi said. Rival Hyundai Motor India Ltd saw its sales rise 15.1 per cent in 2015-16 at 4,84,324 units compared to 4,20,668 units in 2014-15.

HMIL Senior Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said the company achieved the best ever yearly sales due to strong performance of models like Creta, Elite i20 and Grand i10.

Homegrown utility vehicles major Mahindra & Mahindra's domestic sales during the FY16 rose by 5 per cent to 4,58,065 units compared with 4,34,568 units in 2014-15. M&M Chief Executive (auto division) Pravin Shah said the last financial year was significant for the firm considering the number of new product launches which were well received by the customers leading to a positive growth both in domestic and overseas markets. 

"Going forward, we hope to see good opportunity with our wide product portfolio. Further, the likely softening of interest rates in the upcoming RBI monetary policy will help the automotive industry to maintain its growth momentum in FY2017," he added.

Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) said in the fiscal ended March 31, 2016, its domestic sales were at 1,92,059 units as against 1,89,062 units in 2014 15, up 2 per cent.