No festive 'surge' in October sales

Maruti Suzuki which has released its numbers for the month of October says it sold 97,069 units as against 96,062 units in October '13, up one percent.

 The Alto and WagonR together sold 35,753 units, down nine percent from 39,379 units sold in the year-earlier period.

 The company’s latest model, the Ciaz, has got off to a good start with sales of 6345 units.

The Ritz, Celerio, Swift and Dzire sold 37,083 units down from 38,410 units in the year-earlier month.

 In the Van segment, the Omni and Eeco sold 10,453 units as against 9786 units in the year-earlier period.

 Maruti Suzuki is now gearing up for the launch of the Alto K10 which will have an AMT variant. The launch is slated for Monday, November 3.

Hyundai Motors India sold 38,010 units in the month as against 36,002 units in the year-earlier October, an increase of 5.6 percent. Commenting on the October sales, Rakesh Srivastava, senior VP, sales and marketing, Sales and marketing, said, “ Hyundai volumes have grown with a significant increase in sales of additional and replacement buyers propelled by strong demand lead by new models like Elite i20, Xcent coupled with festival buying. We anticipate that this positive momentum would build up further  with increase in sales of entry buyers if there is strong promise of improvement in economic and macro factors in rural and urban markets “

Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra has reported a 15.39 percent decline in total sales at 42,776 units in October as against 50,558 units in the same month last year. Its domestic sales declined by 15.71 per cent to 40,274 units last month as against 47,787 units a year earlier. Sales of passenger vehicles including Scorpio, XUV 500, Xylo, Bolero and Verito stood at 19,254 units, compared with 22,924 units in October 2013, down 16 per cent.

Four-wheel commercial vehicle sales were down by 14.68 per cent to 14,812 units in October 2014 as against 17,362 units in the year-ago month, M&M said. Exports fell 9.7 per cent to 2,502 units from 2,771 units in the same period a year earlier.

 M&M chief executive - automotive division and international operations (AFS) Pravin Shah said: "Our sales for the month of October remain subdued on the back of overall sentiment and high interest rates. However I'm happy with our retail sales this month which has helped bring the system stocks to an optimal level."

 Tata Motors’ total sales (including exports) of Tata passenger cars in October 2014 was 9,594 units, down 12 percent over 10,944 sold in October 2013. The sales of utility vehicles were 1,917 units, down by 40 percent over 3,189 units sold in October last year. 

Sales of all Tata Motors passenger vehicles for October 2014 were at 11,511 nos., lower by 19 percent over 14,133 vehicles sold in October 2013.