Commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland reported a 2% drop in sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicle domestic sales for February as the Indian auto industry grapples with an overall slowdown.
However, a 9% jump in the light commercial vehicle segment supported overall volumes, helping the automaker post a 1% increase in its total domestic sales for the month.
Exports, however, performed worse. Including exports, total sales of medium and heavy vehicles fell 3%, while overall numbers remained flat.
DOMESTIC SALES
Total vehicle sales in the domestic market during the month grew to 17,352 units from 17,213.
The company sold 12,621 medium and heavy commercial vehicles during the month, a drop of 253 compared to a year ago. Within this, the truck numbers fell by 460 to 11,117, while bus sales increased by 207 to 1,504 units.
Ashok Leyland sold 4,731 light commercial vehicles during the month, up by 392 from last year.
EXPORTS
The company exported 893 vehicles during the month, a drop of 75 compared to a year ago.
Exports of the trucks fell by 73 to 319 units, while exports in the bus segment plunged by 129 to 251 units this year.
However, the exports of the light commercial vehicles increased by 107 to 223 units, offsetting some of the losses.
Ashok Leyland, a part of the Hinduja Group, is one of the two main bus and full-sized truck makers of India, along with Tata Motors.