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Car market: Maruti share drops to 64.7 pc from 81 pc

Passenger car sales spiralled 56 per cent during the first nine months of 1999-2000 riding on increased demand for the Daewoo Matiz, Hyundai Santro and Telco Indica. Maruti Udyog Limited closed the period with a 64.7 per cent marketshare, down from 81.2 per cent a year ago.

Sales of all the small car manufacturers grew manifold, led by Telco, which sold 37,223 units in April-December 1999 as against 1,869 units in the year-ago period, latest sales figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers revealed.

Daewoo Motors India sold 25,342 units of the Matiz, Cielo and Nexia during the period while Ind Auto sold 16,124 units of the Uno and Siena. Hyundai managed to despatch 51,118 units of the Santro and Accent during the period, up from 8,448 units last year.

Maruti sold 295,357 passenger cars during the nine-month period, up 24.5 per cent from 237,268 units a year earlier.

The entire passenger car market sales stood at 456,238 as against 291,916 in the previous year.

According to the SIAM figures, Honda Siel and Mercedes Benz were the only manufacturers to have recorded a drop in sales during the nine-month period. Honda Siel sold 6,380 units of the City, down 7.7 per cent from 6,918 units a year ago while Mercedes Benz sold 715 units of its E-class, down 26,9 per cent from 979 units.

Meanwhile, the commercial vehicle segment grew 30 per cent in the nine months to 117,250 units as against 90,255 units a year earlier. Heavy commercial vehicle sales were 76,267 units, up 50.35 per cent from 50,725 units a year earlier while light commercial vehicle sales grew 3.68 per cent to 40,983 units.

The sales of multi-utility vehicles touched 83,042 units as compared to 79,393 units a year earlier.

The scooter segment, however, registered lower volumes at 926,730 units, down 4.58 per cent from 971,234 units a year earlier. But motorcycle sales shot up 27.12 per cent to 1.251 million units.

With the moped segment growing by 4.03 per cent to 526,539 units, total bi-wheeler sales stood at 2.70 million units, up 9.87 per cent over the previous year.

Three-wheeler sales in the the nine-month period was 150,387 units, down 0.52 per cent over the previous year.

UNI

The Maruti Saga

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