Motown snapshot : January 2013

Customer sentiment remained subdued in the automobile industry due to high interest rates and price hikes as car sales fell 13% in January with Tata Motors, Toyota Motors and Ford India suffering the worst declines.
Country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India reported a 1.06% decline in its total sales at 114,205 units sold in January 2013. Its domestic sales grew at a moderate 2% to 1.03 lakh units compared to 1.01 lakh units sold in the year-ago period. The overall performance was largely bogged by exports that dipped 22% to 11,179 cars last month from 14,386 units last year. While Hyundai Motor India, country’s second largest car manufacturer registered a 4.25% growth in cumulative sales for January 2013. The domestic sales grew 1.2% to 34,302 units compared to 33,900 units last year.
Hyundai also announced a price increase across its models starting from Eon to the Santa Fe SUV by up to . 20,878 to offset the impact of a rise in input cost and fluctuation in currency. M&M registered a growth of 33% and sold 26,555 units in January 2013 as against 19,975 units during January 2012.
Tata Motors posted its worst decline of the current fiscal. Passenger vehicle sales dipped 56% to 15,209 units during the month. The company sold 11,192 units of its Nano ,Indica and Indigo range in January 2013 along with 4,017 units of the Sumo, Safari, Aria and the Venture range in the domestic market.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor sales also declined by a high 23% to 13,329 units in January 2013 over 17,395 units sold in the corresponding month in 2012.
American car maker Ford India reported a 34% decline in sales to 6,062 units in January this year as against 9,137 units in the same month last year. General Motors India saw sales dipping 8% to 7,588 vehicles in the month of January from 8,241 vehicles sold in the corresponding period last year.
French car maker Renault India reported an over five-fold jump in sales in January this year at 4,914 units.
The sales were largely led by stupendous sales of its sports utility vehicle Duster that accounted for 3,554 units of the total sales made in January.

Analyst tracking the sector said that after a muted start, the first half of 2013 is expected to remain challenging.