Maruti hits a home run in January as others stand and watch
03 February 2009
New Delhi: Automobile companies are still having a hard time coming to terms with the economic downturn that has deflated their businesses, even as Maruti Suzuki successfully pulled a rabbit out of its hat and managed to post virtually astonishing sales numbers in an otherwise grim market.
Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Limited hit a home run of sorts, achieving its highest ever domestic and total sales in January 2009, a month which saw the company sell 67,005 units in the domestic market. That marks a 5.6 per cent increase over the corresponding month during the last fiscal. The previous highest monthly domestic sales were 65,216 units in November 2007. Exports for January 2009 totalled 4774 units.
In all, Maruti Suzuki sold 71,779 vehicles in January 2009, higher by 5.4 per cent over corresponding month last fiscal. The previous highest Total Sales were registered in March 2007 (71,772 units).
| Segment | Models | January | Till January | April'07 - March'08 | ||||
| 2009 | 2008 | % Change | 2008-09 | 2007-08 | % Change | |||
| A1 | M800 | 5571 | 5470 | 1.8% | 42878 | 57455 - | 25.4% | 69553 |
| C | Omni, Versa | 7759 | 8861 - | 12.4% | 64286 | 74420 - | 13.6% | 89729 |
| A2 | Alto, Wagon-R, Zen, Swift, A-star | 46899 | 45957 | 2.0% | 405650 | 413352 - | 1.9% | 499280 |
| A3 | SX4, Esteem, Dzire | 6590 | 2939 | 124.2% | 59290 | 39841 | 48.8% | 49335 |
| Total Passenger Cars | 66819 | 63227 | 5.7% | 572104 | 585068 - | 2.2% | 707897 | |
| MUV | Gypsy, Vitara | 186 | 232 - | 19.8% | 5560 | 3024 | 83.9% | 3921 |
| Domestic | 67005 | 63459 | 5.6% | 577664 | 588092 - | 1.8% | 711818 | |
| Export | 4774 | 4648 | 2.7% | 49644 | 42638 | 16.4% | 53024 | |
| Total Sales | 71779 | 68107 | 5.4% | 627308 | 630730 - | 0.5% | 764842 | |
Tata Motors too had some cause for cheer, with domestic sales for January 2009 at 35,704 units, the highest in the last three months.
Tata's domestic commercial vehicle sales notched up 17,373 units, the highest level since October 2008, while domestic passenger vehicle sales stood at 18,331 units, the highest since May 2008. The company's total sales (including exports) were 36,931 vehicles, also the highest in the last three months.
In a statement, Tata said that feeble signals of the impact of the financial stimulus announced by the Government were starting to be evident, particularly for the commercial vehicles segement, even though the automobile market continues to be under the grip of a credit squeeze and high interest rates. It said that this was the reason that January 2009 domestic sales were 30 per cent lower than that of January 2008.
