Higher fuel cost, floods hurt car sales in Sept

Domestic passenger vehicles sales moved in slow lane in September with major manufacturers on Monday reporting either single-digit growth or decline due to high fuel cost and floods in parts of the country affecting consumer buying sentiment. While Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors and Toyota Kirloskar posted single-digit sales growth in September, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Ford witnessed a decline in sales.

The country's largest carmaker MSI said its domestic sales stood at 1,53,550 units last month, up 1.4 per cent from 1,51,400 units in September last year.

The company witnessed growth in the compact segment which includes models like Swift and Baleno but saw a dip in sales of mini segment cars and utility vehicles during the month.

Sales of mini cars comprising Alto and WagonR were at 34,971 units as compared to 38,479 units in July last year, down 9.1 per cent.

Tata Motors posted a 7 per cent rise in passenger vehicle sales at 18,429 units last month as compared to 17,286 units in September 2017. Tata Motors President – Passenger Vehicles Business Mayank Pareek said the growth for the overall PV industry is stressed with degrowth in all three months of the quarter.

Similarly, Toyota Kirloskar Motor posted a 1.43 per cent rise in domestic sales last month at 12,512 units as compared with 12,335 units in the same month of last year. "Customer demand in the auto industry has temporarily dampened owing to rising fuel prices, floods in different parts of the country and impact of currency weakness," TKM Deputy Managing Director N Raja said.