NEW DELHI : In the end, the last month of fiscal ’03 turned in a traffic-stopping performance. Big volume carmakers clocked top-gear growth, led by market leader Maruti.
At 52,700 units (including export of 8282 units), March saw Maruti clocking its highest monthly sales ever, taking the fiscal tally to 4.7 lakh units (including export of 51,175 units), the highest in the company’s 20-year-run.
MUL’s domestic sales tally for March, at 44,418 units, though, was up just short of 5% over last March’s 42,398 units, mostly due to the abnormal surge last year after the excise cut.
Segment-wise, the company clocked the highest growth in the B-segment this fiscal. At 176,132 units, B-segment sales of the Zen, Alto and WagonR grew 46% from 120,516 units notched in the last fiscal.
The company’s bread and butter M800 grew 17% at 167,561 units, while the C-segment models, Baleno and Esteem, grew more than 28% to 14,173 units.
Maruti isn’t the only carmaker to be cheering. Ford India notched its highest sales ever this March, at 3200 units, double of last-March’s 1,519 unit tally.
The haul comprises 3,035 Ikons, 185 Endeavours and 12 Mondeos. Cumulative fiscal sales was up 41% at 21,700 units, compared to 15,300 units sold last year.
Ditto for Toyota Kirloskar Motor, which ended the fiscal with cumulative sales of 42,562 units, up 40% over last fisc. It’s March tally of 4,410 units, however, is a shade lower than the 4,522 units sold last year.
In its yearly tally, Corolla’s catch has been the highest — at 9,546 units, it’s up 635%. The Camry, at 1,117 units, was up 140%, and the Qualis, at 31,898 units was up 12% this fiscal.
In bikes, Hero Honda crossed the 2m mark, with 20,70,157 units, up 23% over last fiscal’s 1,677,537 units. The company’s March tally, at 1.92 lakh bikes, was up 66% over last March’s 1.15 lakh units. Arch rival Bajaj Auto was up 27.4% at 94,322 units, compared to 74,039 units last March.
Cumulative fiscal tally for motorcycles crossed the 1m mark, with 10,23,650 units, up 18% over 868,138 units last fisc. Bajaj’s total two-wheeler sales, at 118,662 units, were up 26% in March.
The fiscal tally was flat at 3% with 1,288,259 units. In three-wheelers, Bajaj’s March tally, at 20,139 units, was up 24.6% while the fiscal tally of 2.29 lakh was up 18%.
The third big player TVS revved back to bike growth, thanks to the just-launched Centra.
The company clocked 62,060 units in March, up 12% over last year’s 55,659 units. The company’s total two-wheeler sales in March, at 100,591 units, was up 18% over last March’s 85,008 units and its fiscal tally was up 2.5%. |
