It's been over two months since the new Goods and Service Tax (GST) came into being and things have been quite positive for the Indian four-wheeler industry ever since. Our July sale report will tell you that top car manufactures like Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai, and Honda Cars India among others have been registering double digit growth and the positive streak can been seen August sales as well. While Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra saw a positive growth in August 2017, Toyota Kirloskar Motors and Ford India saw a considerable decline in August sales.
The country's leading car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India and registered a cumulative growth of 23.8 per cent with total sales going up to 163,701 units in August 2017, against the 132,211 units sold during the same month last year. Domestic sales also saw a massive rise with sales shooting up to 152,000 units compared to last August's 119,931 units seeing growth of 26.7 per cent. This time however the credit majorly goes to the new-gen Maruti Suzuki Dzire and the Baleno as Maruti sales in the compact car segment grew by 62.4 per cent. The segment includes the Swift hatch, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno, the new Dzire and the Dzire Tour S and their cumulative sales went up to 74,012 units compared to 45,579 units sold in August 2016. Exports at the same time saw a considerable decline of 4.7 per cent with the numbers going down to 11,701 units in August 2017 from 12,280 units from August 2016.
Country's leading utility vehicle manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra registered a total growth of 4 per cent with the company selling 42,116 units in the month of August 2017, against the 40,591 units sold in August 2016. This includes sale of both passenger car and commercial vehicles in domestic and export markets together. Mahindra's passenger car sales in India alone grew by 6 per cent to 19,325 units from 18,246 units achieved in August 2016. Mahindra's bread and butter, utility vehicle division that includes the Scorpio, XUV500, TUV300 and KUV100, saw a growth of 7 per cent. In August 2017, the Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles segment sold 538 vehicles, a growth of 45 per cent. Exports took a major hit with a decline of 29 per cent at 2582 units compared to the 3647 units exported in August 2016.
Commenting on the performance, Rajan Wadhera, President, Automotive Sector, M&M Ltd. said, "We are happy with our performance in August'17 as our Commercial Vehicles grew by 17 per cent. Our LCV<3.5T grew by 18 per cent and MHCVs registered a whooping growth of 45 per cent. This upsurge in demand has been due to good monsoons and our rural penetration. Our Passenger Vehicles grew by 6 per cent and our overall sales grew by 4 per cent. Our brands continue to gain traction despite several external challenges. As we get into festive season, we are confident of a good growth over the next couple of months, on the back of our diversified product portfolio."
Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) today announced that in August 2017 the company saw decline of 6.86 per cent in total sales with cumulative sales reaching 13,081 units last month compared to the 14,045 units sold in August 2016. Similarly Domestic sales also went down by 6.12 per cent with the company selling 12,017 units last month against the 12,801 units sold during the same time last year.
TKM Director and Senior Vice-President - Sales and Marketing N Raja said: "Our sales numbers this month are not truly reflective of the existing customer orders. Post the announcement on potential cess hike, there was a considerable rise in customer enquiries and orders." He said the company faced production limitations which held it back from catching up with high demand and holidays in August also led to lesser number of production days. "With the demand on the rise, the current waiting period for Innova has gone up to around 6-8 weeks and Fortuner is around 10-12 weeks respectively," Raja added.
Demand for the Camry Hybrid has also largely fallen post GST implementation, which wasn't favourable for hybrid cars.
August 2017 was not so good for Ford India which saw a decline of over 40 per cent in total sales (Domestic + Exports). Cumulative sales in August 2017 reached 15,740 units against 26,408 vehicles sold in August 2016. Decline in domestic sales last month was still marginal at 7,777 units compared to 8,548 units sold during the same time last month. But, exports took a major hit seeing a decline of 55.4 per cent with 7,963 units in August 2017, against the 17,860 units exported in August 2016.
Commenting on the company's performance, Anurag Mehrotra, President & Managing Director, Ford India, said, "Constraints in the supply chain severely impacted export as well as domestic production for Ford cars in August. Moving forward with our commitment to deliver world-class products and value of ownership, we look forward to an exciting festive season. We also look forward to a stable and conducive policy framework from the Government as frequent changes in tax rates threaten to have an adverse impact on the consumer sentiment."
Post the GST counsel's decision to allow the increase of cess on luxury car and SUVs, it seems like the road ahead for carmakers like Ford India and Toyota might not be very favourable. Having said that, the counsel is yet to announce its final decision so its time to wait and see.
The country's second largest car manufacturer Hyundai India registers a 9 per cent increase in domestic sales to 47,103 units from 43,201 units achieved in August 2016. HMIL Director, sales and marketing, Rakesh Srivastava said August sales were boosted by strong response to the newly launched Verna that received more than 7,000 bookings within 10 days of launch. He said the market faced challenges from floods in many states and also speculations on the GST cess increase. Srivastava, however, said the company expects strong sales in the festive season on the back of a good and widespread monsoon.=
Honda India saw its third consecutive double digit growth in the domestic market in the month of August 2017. The company's local sales went up by 25 per cent at 17,365 units, against the 13,941 units sold in August 2016. At the same time exports went down by 13.4 per cent to 575 units compared to 664 units exported in August 2016. Total sales for the month of August 2017 went up by 18.5 per cent to 17,940 units, against the 14,605 units sold in August 2016.
Yoichiro Ueno, President and CEO, Honda Cars India Ltd. said "HCIL continues to record strong sales in August led by City and WR-V. The festive purchases have already begun in some parts of the country and we expect the festival season to further boost our sales numbers in the next two months. HCIL has announced 'The Great Honda Fest' from today and we want our customers to take this opportunity to get maximum benefits on the purchase of their Honda car."
Tata Motors registered a total growth of 14 per cent at 48,988 units, against the 43,105 units sold in during the same month last year. Domestic sales, however, grew at a much larger scale going up to 26 per cent with over 45,906 units in August 2017 compared to the 36,510 units sold in August 2016. These number include both commercial and passenger vehicles, but when you just consider passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market, the company registered a growth of 10 per cent at 14,340 units, as opposed to the 11,462 units sold in August 2016.
Exports at the same time saw a massive decline of 53 per cent at 3,082 units compared to the 6,595 units sold during the same month in August 2016. Tata's UV sales in the passenger car market went up by 84 per cent at 2,878 units, but this is due to the Hexa, which wasn't there in the market last year during the same month.
(The Volkswagen Tiguan is the latest offering to go on sale from the company)
