Motown snippets

Mahindra & Mahindra zoomed ahead in a slow market selling 28 per cent more vehicles in June, even as rival Tata Motors sales fell 22 per cent. M&M sold 19,792 passenger vehicles last month compared with 16,053 units in June 2011, with Bolero, Scorpio and XUV500 SUVs continuing to lead charts.
M&M’s exports also rose 37 per cent at 2,371 units in June against 1,812 units in the year-ago period.
Tata Motors passenger vehicles sales stood at 17,244 units compared with 21,994 in June last year. The Mumbai-based automaker said sales of Nano rose 3 per cent at 5,605 units in June against 5,452 in the year-ago month.
Sales of Indica and Indigo, however, plummeted due to intense competition from Toyota’s Etios and Etios Liva.
Sales of its utility vehicles Sumo, Safari and Aria, however, rose 5 per cent at 3,469 units last month compared with 3,472 sold in June 2011.
Tata Motors truck and bus sales staged a comeback at 41,026 units in the period under review, an increase of 4 per cent over 39,272 in year-ago month. Overall exports surged 19 per cent at 6,071 vehicles in June 2012 compared to 5,094 vehicles in the year-ago period.
Japanese carmaker Toyota Kirloskar Motor sold 22 per cent more cars at 14,700 units last month compared with 12,034 units in June 2011.
TVS Motor's sales fell 8 per cent at 168,693 units in June against 519,160 units in the year-ago month. Yamaha said its half-yearly sales between January to June grew 9.6 per cent at 228,378 bikes against 208,288 during January to June last year.