Car sales in slow lane in Feb, Jat quota stir hits dispatches

New Delhi: Domestic car sales saw a muted growth last month with market leader Maruti Suzuki taking a hit due to the Jat quota stir in Haryana even as Hyundai Motor India and Mahindra saw increase in purchases during the month.

On the other hand, home grown auto major Tata Motors saw its domestic passenger vehicles sales dipping in February.

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said its domestic sales increased marginally to 1,08,115 units as against 1,07,892 in February 2015.

"During the month, the reservation agitation had disrupted component supplies, causing a temporary suspension of production by the company. Total production loss due to this was over 10,000 units. Despite that, the company was able to achieve marginal growth in domestic sales," MSI said.

Maruti saw sales of mini segment cars, including Alto and WagonR, decline by 11.2 percent to 35,495 units as compared to 39,988 units in the same month last year.

Sales of the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz, Dzire and Baleno increased marginally to 42,970 units in February this year as against 42,778 units in the year-ago period.

Rival Hyundai Motor India's domestic sales rose 9.1 percent to 40,716 units in February compared with 37,305 units in February 2015.

HMIL senior Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said the domestic growth was driven mainly by its three model brands -- Creta, Elite i20 and Grand.

The growth has been achieved in spite of logistical challenges for transportation of vehicles to North India and loss of many business days of dealership operations across Haryana, he added.

Home-grown utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra saw its domestic sales growing by 18.41 percent to 41,348 units last month as against 34,918 in February 2015.

The company's Chief Executive (automotive division) Pravin Shah said the growth has been on the back of the company's range of passenger and commercial vehicles.

Tata Motors saw sales of its passenger vehicles dip by 20 percent at 10,962 units in February, as against 13,767 units in the same month of previous year.

Renault India's sales zoomed over two-fold to 8,834 units in February as against 3,419 units sold in the same month last year.

Kwid continues to play a pivotal role in the company's expansion plans in India with customer orders crossing the 1,00,000 mark, Renault India said in a statement.

The company said it has ramped up the production capacity at its Chennai plant to meet the growing demand of the product.

In the two-wheeler segment, market leader Hero MotoCorp reported a 14 percent increase in sales at 5,50,992 units in February as against 4,84,769 in the same month last year. 

"These numbers have been possible in spite of the

production at Hero's manufacturing facilities in Gurgaon and Dharuhera in Haryana and at Neemrana in Rajasthan being impacted for a few days due to local agitations in the region during the month," the company said.

On the other hand, niche bike maker Royal Enfield reported a 63 percent jump in total motorcycle sales at 49,156 units last month as against 30,240 in February 2015.

India Yamaha Motor also reported 49.96 percent rise in domestic sales at 56,960 units in February compared with 37,982 in the year-ago month.

Chennai-based TVS Motors reported a 7.28 percent increase in total sales at 2,19,467 units in February compared to 2,04,565 units in the same month of last year.