Cars regain speed, clock 24% growth in February

PUNE: Major carmakers on Monday reported robust double-digit sales in February, bringing cheers to the automakers depressed from the prolonged Covid pandemic that had hit them hard.

The top 10 carmakers who produce 97 per cent of the total domestic sales clocked a 24 per cent growth in domestic volumes in February at 298,694 units against 241,533 units sold in February 2020. Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest car maker by sales, said it sales in February jumped 11.8 per cent to 1,52,983 units from 1,36,849 units it sold a year ago.
Sales at its rival Hyundai, the second largest carmaker, also rose 29 per cent to 51,600 units, up from 40,010 units.

Tata Motors reported an 119 per cent jump in sales to 27,225 units, up from 12,430 units. Korean brand Kia Motors logged a 7 per cent rise in volumes to 16,702 units against 15,644 units. Mahindra and Mahindra, the SUV specialist, also reported 41 per cent jump in sales last month to 15,391 units, up from 10,938 units a year ago.

Japanese carmaker Toyota registered a 36 per cent sales growth last month. It sold 14,075 units compared to 10,352 units in February 2020. Toyota attributed this sales growth to new launches like Innova Crysta and Fortuner facelift and Fortuner Legender in January. French car brand Renault posted 26 per cent growth in February volumes to
11,043 units against 8,784.

The company has started dispatches of their latest model Kiger to its showrooms. Honda Cars sold 28.3 per cent more cars at 9,324 units last month, up from 7,269 units it sold last year. Sales at MG Motor registered its best-ever monthly retail at 4,329 units last month, marking a growth of 215 per cent compared to February 2020. China’s SAIC-owned British car- maker registered this growth on account of robust demand for Hector facelift, Hector Plus, and Gloster.

Riding on the success of the Magnite SUV, Nissan Motor saw 313 per cent growth in February volumes to 4,244 units as against 1,028 units sold in the same month last year.