02 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:New Delhi: Car makers Maruti Suzuki and GM India today reported a drop in sales in December, compared to the corresponding period last year.
The country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki, reported 9.95 per cent decline in sales during December last year at 56,293 units against 62,515 units in the same month of 2007.
The domestic sales stood at 52,029 units, compared to 58,401 units in the same month a year ago, down by 10.91 per cent, the company said in a statement.
General Motors India reported a 35.95 per cent decline in its domestic sales at 4,041 units in December last year, against 6,309 units in the same month in 2007.
The sales comprised 509 units of multi-utility vehicle Chevrolet Tavera, 867 units of sedan and hatchback Chevrolet Aveo and Aveo U-VA, 248 units of the luxury sedan Chevrolet Optra, 2,382 units of its small car Chevrolet Spark and 35 units of Chevrolet Captiva, the company said in a statement.
For Maruti, exports, however, grew by 3.65 per cent at 4,264 units against 4,114 units in the corresponding month the previous year.
Sales of its M800 dipped by 59.57 per cent at 2,907 units against 7,190 units in 2007.
The A2 segment (comprising A-Star, Alto, Zen Estilo, Swift and WagonR) sales stood at 36,831 units against 39,575 units a year ago, registering a decline of 6.93 per cent. The company, however, managed to post a robust growth of 98.24 per cent in the A3 segment (consisting of SX4, Swift DZire and Esteem) at 6,524 units against 3,291 units last year.
Continuing with southward trend, Maruti's total passenger car sales dipped by 11.15 per cent to 51,612 units in December 2008, against 58,090 units in the previous year.
For the last calendar year, GM India posted 9.44 per cent growth in sales at 65,702 units, compared with 60,032 units in 2007.
"Since the market has slowed down completely, we could not meet our target although we have registered a marginal growth this year," GM India Vice-President P Balendran said. The company expected the market to improve in the coming months because of the various measures taken by the government to stimulate the economy, he added.
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