Car Sales Report December 2018: Car Sales Bounce Back From Decline In Festive Season

India's largest car manufacturer has surprisingly recorded a decline in sales for the second time in a row. The company has recorded a marginal decline of 1.3 per cent sales in December 2018, compared to the same month in 2017.

Maruti sold a total of 128,338 units in December 2018 compared to 130,066 during the same month in 2017. Out of this, 121,479 units were from domestic sales and the remaining 6,859 units came from the export market. One of the major declines for the company was from the export sales, which recorded a slump of 36.4 per cent compared between December 2018 and 2017.

Hyundai Motors India

Hyundai has registered a 4.8 per cent growth in sales figures in the month of December 2018. The Korean brand recorded 42,093 units in the last month compared to 40,158 units in December 2017.

Apart from the December sales, Hyundai also registered their highest-ever sales figures in 2018. The year saw Hyundai selling 710,012 units, out of which 550,002 units came from domestic sales. This was mainly because of the introduction of both the Creta facelift and the Santro hatchback during the year.

Honda Cars India

Honda recorded a 4 per cent growth in December 2018. The company registered sales of 13,139 units last month compared to 12,642 units in December 2017.

Rajesh Goel, Senior VP and Director, Sales and Marketing, HCIL, stated, "The market continued to remain challenging in December. However, with lucrative year-end offers on many of our models and strong performance of new models Amaze and CR-V, HCIL recorded 4% sales growth in December 2018. We are thankful to our customers to have continued faith in the Honda brand."

Tata Motors

Tata Motors is the other brand in the list which has recorded a decline in sales during the month of December 2018. The Indian brand has registered a decline of 8 per cent in sales with 50,440 units compared to 54,627 units in December 2017.

However, the company's cumulative growth between April - December has increased by 25 per cent to 497,972 units from 398,764 units last year.

Ford India

Ford is probably the biggest gainer in the list for December 2018 sales. The American brand registered a growth of 15 per cent last month selling 5840 units from 5087 units in December 2017.

Anurag Mehrotra, President & MD, Ford India, stated, "2018 was a turnaround year for Ford in India as we consistently delivered on our strategy of Strong Brand, Right Product, Competitive Cost and Effective Scale to strengthen our commitment to India. Despite headwinds due to regulatory and economic changes in India and export markets, we are confident of keeping the momentum in 2019. In India, we are confident of growing better than the industry and bringing many more customers to the Ford fold to experience the promise of transparency and differentiated experience."

Toyota India

Toyota is the second biggest gainer, with 10 per cent growth in December 2018. The company recorded sales of 12,483 units last month compared to 11,605 units in December 2017.

N. Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, "We are happy to close the year end with a series of positive milestones despite the dampening effect on consumer sentiment owing to hike in fuel prices, higher interest rates, increase in insurance premium. Our versatile sedan-Toyota Yaris launched this year has been an important contributor to the positive annual sales growth. Additionally, other products like Etios Liva have also sustained the positive sales momentum."

Verdict

December 2018 is usually a slow month for most manufacturers, as they start concentrating on plans for the upcoming year. However, most manufacturers have managed to come out with a positive result, especially after slow sales during 2018 festive season. Moving into the new year, most company's are already started strategising their plans for 2019.