Indian car sales show roller coaster results in May

The Indian automobile industry showed a roller coaster sale results in May 2009 with sales of Maruti Suzuki going up the roller coaster while that of Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai Motors and GM India sliding.

The country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki was the only car manufacturer to record a fifth straight rise in monthly vehicle sales in May, with sales growing 16 per cent to 79,872 vehicles including exports of 9,087 cars from 69,001 a year earlier.

In its small car segment, the Alto, Wagon-R, Zen, Swift, A-star, sales grew by 20.7 per cent at 53,760 units sold in May compared to 44,539 in the same period of last year.

The Maruti Alto being sold in the UK as the Suzuki Alto, has become a hit with British consumers since a brand new Suzuki Alto is sold for just about £4,700 - thanks to the scrappage scheme introduced last month, which is expected to drive the automobile sector out of recession. Auto dealers and the British government will together provide the remaining £2,000 pounds. (See: Suzuki's India-made Alto a hit in the UK)

Around 1,500 Suzuki Altos were sold in the UK even before the scheme came into being.

This is in sharp contrast to the sales figures of Tata Motors, M&M, and Hyundai Motors, all of whom, posted negatives sales results with Tata Motors sales were 38,392 units, an 11 per cent decline over 42,916 units sold in May last year.