Tata Motors overtakes Hyundai as India's second-biggest car maker

Tata Motors has overtaken Hyundai as the country's second-biggest passenger vehicle maker in June, behind only Maruti Suzuki. As theNano: Celebrating one year on the road
Tata Indigo Manza
production of Nano started at Sanand in Gujarat, Tata Motors has been witnessing a bulge in numbers.

Auto companies reported robust sales numbers in June, backed by strong demand for new models and comfortable financing rates. The country's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki saw sales in the domestic market going up 18% year-on-year at 72812 units, though numbers were down on a sequential basis as demand for cars remains usually subdued in the monsoon months. The company said it was closed for 6 days in June for a planned maintenance shutdown of the facilities.

But the action was for the second spot as Tata Motors moved ahead of Hyundai in terms of sales. And as anticipated this edge was given by Nano. Helped by 7704 units sold by Nano in June, passenger vehicle volumes of Tata Motors were up 63% at 27811 units, a few hundred units more than Hyundai's 27366 units (up 19%). However, this is not the first time that Tata Motors has done this.

While numbers of a single month cannot be the final verdict on the ranking in the Indian passenger vehicle market, it is believed that Nano numbers could see Tata Motors score higher than Hyundai quite regularly.
Others who saw demand remain strong was General Motors and Ford, both of whom are going strong on the back of new small cars they have launched. GM's Beat compact and Ford's Figo have ensured that the companies have a strong tempo in the domestic market. Toyota and Mercedes were also among companies whose numbers remained strong in the month. Toyota, that is again opening bookings for its Fortuner SUV after clearing backlog, saw numbers going up 41.5% in June, while for Mercedes, the growth was a big 94%.
However, volumes were down for utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra as well as Honda. Mahindra's UV sales fell 4% in June and the company said it had an annual shutdown in the first week of June.
On the two-wheeler side, Hero Honda enjoyed a good ride as the company sold 4.26 lakh units at a growth of 17%. TVS, the third-biggest two-wheeler maker, saw domestic volumes up 33% at 1.39 lakh units.


Source: Economic Times

Posted by: Rishma Shetty