Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai clock record annual sales, signal auto sector recovery

New Delhi - Maruti Suzuki India and Hyundai Motor India on Friday reported their respective best ever annual sales in the fiscal year ended March 31, leading the auto sector towards the recovery path. Mahindra & Mahindra and Honda Cars India (HCIL) also posted sales growth in financial year 2015-16. [caption id=“attachment_2654128” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] For the fiscal year 2015-16, Maruti Suzuki India posted sales of 14,29,248 units, an increase of 10.6 per cent. This comprised its highest ever domestic sales of 13,05,351 units and 1,23,897 units of exports. “We posted record (domestic) sales in 2015-16. While the industry grew by around 7 per cent, we grew 11.5 per cent during the fiscal,” Maruti Suzuki India executive director marketing and sales R S Kalsi told PTI. Rival Hyundai Motor India Ltd saw its sales rise 15.1 percent in 2015-16 at 4,84,324 units compared with 4,20,668 units in 2014-15. HMIL senior vice-president (sales and marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said the company achieved the best ever yearly sales due to strong performance of models like Creta, Elite i20 and Grand i10. Homegrown utility vehicles major Mahindra & Mahindra’s domestic sales during the FY16 rose by 5 per cent to 4,58,065 units compared with 4,34,568 units in 2014-15. M&M chief executive (auto division) Pravin Shah said the last financial year was significant for the firm considering the number of new product launches which were well received by the customers leading to a positive growth both in domestic and overseas markets. “Going forward, we hope to see good opportunity with our wide product portfolio. Further, the likely softening of interest rates in the upcoming RBI monetary policy will help the automotive industry to maintain its growth momentum in FY2017,” he added. Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) said in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, its domestic sales were at 1,92,059 units as against 1,89,062 units in 2014-15, up 2 per cent. Commenting on the company’s sales performance, HCIL senior vice president-marketing and sales Jnaneswar Sen said: “Year 2015-16 was an eventful and rewarding year for HCIL. We continued our growth journey in the market making this year as 4th consecutive year of annual sales growth.” On the outlook, he said, “The new fiscal year holds tremendous opportunity for our further growth as we will enhance our product line-up with the launch of new models and expand our dealer network.” He said that with the upcoming launch of Honda BR-V, the company would mark its entry into a new product segment. In March, Maruti Suzuki India’s domestic sales increased by 14.6 per cent to 1,18,895 units as against 1,03,719 units in the same month last year.