Honda Cars India Ltd, a unit of the Japanese auto giant, reported a decline in car sales for November as Mobilio sales fell by nearly 90%, bucking the trend of overall positive numbers from other players.
Earlier in the day, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra reported strong year-on-year growth for sales in November.
Honda Cars said it sold only 14,712 units in November compared to 15,263 units in the corresponding month last year.
With this, for the full financial year so far, the company’s growth has been trimmed to 13% or 1,32,095 units.
Among the most disappointing numbers for November was those for Brio and the recently launched people-mover Mobilio. While Brio sold just 461 units, Mobilio did even worse at just 393 for the month — its worst performance ever.
Mobilio has been criticized for being overpriced, especially since it occupies a very competitive category that includes Toyota Innova and Mahindra SUV 500.
The model had sold around 3,500 per month at this time last year, but fell to 689 in April this year. Last month, it sold 770 units.
On the positive side, the City sedan continued to maintain strong numbers through November, clocking a total of 6,342 units, ahead of its competitor Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, which sold only around 5,500 during the month.
Jazz also did well with 3,367 units (see chart)
Toyota too does poorly in November
Fellow Japanese automaker Toyota also did poorly in November.
Sales fell to 11,388 cars in India from 12,175 in the same month last year. Exports also fell to 1,110 from 1,959.
It said its Etios series continues to register persistent growth as the New Etios & New Liva receives an overwhelming response across the market.
Etios series revealed a cumulative growth of 9% from January to November 2015 when compared to the same period last year.
For the full year, Toyota’s cumulative growth of 7% by selling 129,373 units from January to November 2015 as compared to 121,038 units sold in the corresponding period last year.
The New Camry sales continue to grow as the cumulative sale for Camry has already exceeded 1,000 units from January to November 2015, the company said.
Mahindra & Mahindra reports a 36% jump in car & SUV sales
November is turning out to be a good month for automakers in India, with Mahindra & Mahindra, India’s biggest SUV maker, reporting a 21% jump after Maruti Suzuki said sales rose 9.7% in the month.
M&M total auto sales stood at 41,590 units during November 2015 as against 34,292 units during November 2014, boosted by passenger vehicles.
Mahindra sold 19,662 SUVs, cars and vans in November 2015 as against 14473 in the same month last year, translating to a huge 36% jump. It should be noted that it unveiled the TUV300 entry-level, rugged utility vehicle during the month, which must have contributed to the jump.
The company’s domestic sales stood at 39,383 units during November 2015 as against 32,100 units during November 2014, a growth of 23%. In November 2015, the Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles segment sold 454 units, registering a growth of 75%.
“The festive season coupled with new product launches as well as moderation in interest rates has seen the auto industry post a positive growth during the last couple of months,” said Pravin Shah, President & Chief Executive (Automotive), M&M Ltd.
“At Mahindra, we have been buoyed by our new product launches such as the TUV300 as well as growth momentum of existing products like the Bolero, Scorpio and XUV500. Our exports have been very encouraging, showing a 28% cumulative growth for the current fiscal. We are happy to be in a positive growth phase at the end of November 2015.”
He said he was looking forward to the implementation of the goods and services tax regime, which would replace the cumbersome state sales tax system.
“I believe speedy implementation of GST will help and have a long term impact on the competitiveness of Indian auto industry,” he added.
Powered by Baleno, Maruti Suzuki November auto sales rise 9.7%
Maruti Suzuki reported a strong increase of 9.7% in total auto sales for November this year due to strong sales of its Dzire Tour model and compact cars.
Total sales increased to 120,824, comprising 110,599 units in the domestic market and 10225 units in exports.
Sales of compact cars — including Swift, Celerio, Baleno, Dzire and Ritz — jumped 19.5% to 44,626 units in November.
It is not clear how much the launch of the Baleno helped.
However, mini cars — Alto and WagonR — continued to underperform with a 4.7% decline.
Dzire Tour also increased to 3,363 units, a rise of 69% on year.
Exports inched up 1% to 10,225.
Ciaz, the sedan, sold around 5,500 units November, comparable to itis figure last year, which was around 5,200.
