Maruti May sales slip 5% on falling mini car sales, exports

MoneycontrolBureau

A fall in sales across its mini cars, SX4 mid-size sedan and vans, coupled with a drop in exports dragged down Maruti Suzuki sales in May 5% year-on-year to 98,884 units, although there was strong demand for its newly launched Ertiga multi utility vehicle and compact DZire.

Car sales in India have taken a hit over the last one year due to a sharp rise in petrol prices and expensive loans. This has particularly hit the petrol driven mini cars -- Alto, WagonR, A-Star and the 800 -- from Maruti Suzuki's stable.  Just last week the government had hiked petrol prices by around Rs 7.

Its mini car sales declined 29% from a year ago to 29,895 units in May.

Overall, domestic sales of India's largest passenger car maker fell 4% to 89,478 units, while exports were down 11% to 9,406 units last month.

Maruti Suzuki's utility vehicle sales were the biggest gainers, as sales, driven by the Ertiga launched in April, jumped over seven-fold to 7,734 units.

Demand for the new compact DZire, launched earlier in 2012, also saw strong demand. Its sales were up 64% over the earlier DZire model to 17,707 units and sales of compact cars, which include the Swift, Ritz and Estilo rose 15% to 24,290 units.

Meanwhile, sales of Maruti's SX4 sedan plunged 85% to just 405 units, while it only managed to sell 12 units of the Kizashi in the executive segment, 76% lower than a year ago.

Its total sales over April-May are down 1% to 1,99,299 units, with domestic sales declining 0.5% and exports down 5%.

Maruti shares were up 0.7% at Rs 1,107.90 in morning trade on NSE on Friday. They had hit a low of Rs 1,100 earlier in the session. 

Also Read: M&M May auto sales up 28%, tractor sales flat

Nachiket Kelkar
nachiket.kelkar@moneycontrol.com