Maruti loses share as market expands

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 22. Despite registering its best-ever performance, the market share of Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) has dropped to 63.6 per cent of the passenger car market in the first 10 months of the current fiscal. The country's leading car company sold 3.23 lakh vehicles which was six times more than its closest competitor Hyundai with sales at 60,000 cars. Indica helped Telco improve its performance to end the first 10 months of the current fiscal with sales of 43,000 units, according to consolidated figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) here today.

Maruti lost market share as a result of expansion of the passenger car market by 56 per cent, to 5.08 lakh cars in April- January this fiscal from 3.25 lakh units in April-January last year. The company, however, performed well with sales going up by 22 per cent - from 2.63 lakh vehicles to 3.23 lakhs.

Daewoo was third with sales of nearly 30,000 cars, followed by Hindustan Motors at 21,000, Ind Auto (Fiat) 17,649, Honda 7,383, Ford India 4,523, General Motors 2,036 and Mercedes Benz 748.

MUL also remained the leader in exports although volumes have slipped over the last two years. The company exported 14,618 cars during the first 10 months as against 17,155 during the same period last year and 19,054 in April-Jan 1998. Daewoo exported 895 cars, Hyundai 292 units, Telco 246 cars and Honda 14 cars.

Mahindra & Mahindra's sway in the multi-utility vehicle segment continued with sales crossing the 55,000-mark, thus enabling it to match the performance during the same period in 1998. But Telco, another major player in the multi-utility vehicle segment, was unable to shrug off the slump which saw it selling 25,000 vehicles in the 10 months of this fiscal as against a higher number of vehicles in the same period in the last two years. However, its exports increased dramatically to 3,085 cars this fiscal as against just 642 units in the same period last fiscal.

In the two-wheeler category, total sales by the five manufacturers stood at 10.40 lakhs as against 10.88 lakhs last year and 10.56 lakh in April-January 1998. Bajaj continued to lead with sales of 4.72 lakhs but its showing during April- January this year was 47,000 short of the same period last year and 53,000 less than two years ago. This trend was bucked by only two smaller players - Kinetic and TVS Suzuki - perhaps due to the product mix.

Motorcycle sales, on the other hand, continued to race ahead for the third successive year. Sales in April-January this year stood at 14.21 lakhs, which were three lakhs more than in the previous year and five lakhs higher than sales of 9.1 lakhs in the first 10 months of fiscal 1997-98. Hero Honda continued to dominate the market with sales of 6.09 lakhs, followed by Bajaj Auto's 3.35 lakhs, TVS-Suzuki (2.66 lakhs) and Escorts Yamaha (1.89 lakhs). Moped sales too rose by 20,000 to 5.83 lakhs with TVS Suzuki selling 3.08 lakhs followed by Kinetic at 1.25 lakhs.

Medium and heavy commercial vehicles saw a reversal of the downturn that had set in the first 10 months of last fiscal. Total sales, powered by a good performance by Telco, were at 85,630 as against 59,000 in the same period last year. Telco saw sales rising by 51 per cent to 57,701 units from 38,207 last year. In the light commercial vehicle segment, increased sales were reported by most major manufacturers including Bajaj Tempo, Eicher, Mahindra & Mahindra and Swaraj Mazda. However, Telco sales fell to 28,300 from 31,376 in the first 10 months of 1998- 99.

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