Sales down, Maruti and Mahindra feel the heat in June

The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India today reported a 12.6 per cent decline in total sales in June this year at 84,455 units whereas Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M Ltd.), India's largest sports utility vehicle maker, said its June sales fell nearly 8 percent compared with a year ago.

For June 2013, Maruti reported 7.8 per cent decline in domestic sales at 77,002 units, over 83,531 units in June, 2012.Mahindra's auto sales numbers for June 2013 which stood at 38092 units as against 41322 units during June 2012.

Sales of the Maruti's mini segment cars, including the M800, A-Star, Alto and WagonR, declined by 8.4 per cent to 31,314 units from 34,198 units in June, 2012.

In the compact segment (comprising the Estilo, Swift and Ritz models), Maruti witnessed a 7.2 per cent fall in sales at 20,996 units as against 22,624 units in the same month a year ago. Sales of Maruti's DZiRE model fell by 8.7 per cent to 12,548 units from 13,741 units in the corresponding period a year ago. The company's mid-sized sedan SX4's sales declined by 23 per cent to 314 units from 408 units in the year-ago month, MSI said. Luxury sedan Kizashi witnessed no buyer last month compared to sales of 6 units in June 2012, it added. Sales of utility vehicles went down by 11.4 per cent to 4,997 units from 5,638 units in the year-ago month. Sales of vans dipped by 1.2 per cent to 6,833 units from 6,916 units in the same month last year.

Maruti's total passenger car sales declined by 8.2 per cent to 65,172 units in June from 70,977 units in the same month in 2012, it added.

For Mahindra, the Passenger Vehicles segment (which includes the UVs and Verito) sold 17232 units in June 2013, as against 19792 units during June 2012. The company's domestic sales stood at 36207 units during June 2013, as against 38951 units during June 2012. The 4 wheeler commercial segment which includes the passenger and load vehicles registered a 5% growth, having sold 13761 units, while the 3 wheeler segment clocked 4303 units in June 2013. Exports for the month of June 2013 stood at 1885 units.