Automakers bleed despite government sops

PUNE: Car manufacturers in India, Asia’s third biggest car market, continued to bleed with sales in September going southward in higher double digit despite government sops last month.

Sales of commercial vehicles, the barometer of the economy and motorcycles continued their slide, indicating the depth of slowdown in the economy and consumer sentiment.

Cars sales from major brands such as Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest car maker, Hyundai, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Tata Motors and Honda Cars continued to bleed in September with sales plummeting to higher double digit despite government sops last month.

Sales at Maruti, which sells one car out of two bought in the country,f ell 27 per cent at 1,10,454 units, down from 1,51,512 units it sold last year.

Hyundai’s sales also dropped by 14.8 per cent at 40,705 units, down from 47,781 units it sold in the year ago period.

Sales at Toyota Kirloskar Motor declined 18 per cent at 10,203 units while Tata Motors dropped by a whopping 69 per cent at 5,082 units last month.

“Towards the end of the month, there was an encouraging response in terms of customer foot falls. The customers have responded well to our festive offers as reflected in 11 per ent more retail in September 2019 compared with August. However, the industry continued to decline in September,” Mayank Pareek, Presi-dent, Passenger Vehicles at Tata Motors, said.

Similarly sales at Honda Cars fell 37.24 per cent at 9,301 units in September. “While the market remained tough in September, the auto sales saw an uptick from this August which is a positive sign,” Rajesh Goel, Senior Vice President and Director—Sales and Mark-eting at Honda Cars India, said.

Tata Motors’ commercial vehicle sales declined by 47 per cent at 24,279 units as compared to 46,169 units in the year-ago month. Ashok Leyland reported a sharp drop of 57 per cent at 7,851 units in September as against 18,078 vehicles sold in the same month in 2018.

In the motorcycles segment, sales at Hero MotoCorp were down 20.40 per cent to 612,204 units last month while its rival Bajaj Auto’s sales fell 35 per cent at 1,77,348 units last month. Sales at TVS Motor also declined 25 per cent at 315,912 units last month.