April auto sales remained a subdued affair with top car and two-wheeler makers reporting modest growth. Honda, Toyota, Nissan and M&M reported robust numbers on good demand for their new launches
 

Automobile sales in April remained a mixed bag with several top carmakers like Maruti Suzuki India and Tata Motors reporting modest growth. Nissan Motor India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) and General Motors, however, reported robust numbers in April due to overwhelming response to their launches. According to industry sources, even the enquiry level across the country has gone down due to subdued market sentiments.
 

During April, Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest carmaker reported a modest growth of 3.6% to 90,255 units, mainly due to good demand for its diesel-based Swift and DZire variants. However, sales of its entry-level car Alto continued to show downward growth. Similarly, Tata Motors also recorded a modest growth of 3% to 22,658 units. In April, the country’s largest automaker saw sales of its small car, Nano falling by almost a fifth to 8,028 units, from same month last year.

On the other hand, new entrant, Nissan Motor said its April sales rose 187% to 3,467 units, led by its newly launched sedan—Sunny. The company sold 2,012 units of Sunny in April. The Micra compact premium hatchback accounted for 1,435 unit sales last month—a 19% increase compared to the same period in 2011. The X-TRAIL, a lifestyle SUV, Teana, a premium sedan and the iconic 370Z sports car comprised the remaining sales.

Riding high on the back of its new Innova and Fortuner, Toyota Kirloskar reported a 49% growth in April. During the month, the company sold 14,378 units compared with 9,681 units a year ago. The company sold 6,582 units of Innova and 1,270 units of Fortuner compared with 3,464 units and 739 units, respectively, same month last year.
 
Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director for marketing, Toyota Kirloskar, said, “The Etios series, Innova and Fortuner continued to register growth in April. However, the market sentiments seem to be low with the enquiry levels gone down across the industry.”

India's largest utility vehicle (UV) maker, M&M reported a 27% increase in its April sales on robust demand for its passenger vehicle segment. It sold 40,719 units as against 32,090 units recorded in April 2011. General Motors witnessed a 20% fall to 8,005 units in its car sales during April. Last month, the company sold 821 units of the small car Spark, 4,586 units of hatchback Beat, 140 units of entry-level sedan Aveo, 28 units of mid-sized sedan Optra and 455 units of luxury sedan Cruze. It also sold 1,953 units of multi-purpose vehicle Tavera and 22 units of sports utility vehicle Captiva during the month.
 
P Balendran, vice president, GM India, said, "The sales were not on expected lines as uncertainty in fuel prices, hike in excise duty and hike in local taxes in some states continue to put a lot of pressure on the automobile market.”

In two-wheeler segment, except Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), all others reported a modest growth. Hero MotoCorp, the country’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer registered 6.6% growth to 551,557 units, while Bajaj Auto, the second largest bike maker, reported 4% growth in April. Bajaj Auto sold 3,81,590 units in the month compared with 3,67,309 units a year ago. While Bajaj's motorcycle sales grew 6% at 342,324 units, commercial vehicles reported 13% decline to 39,266 units in April, compared to the same month in 2011. During April, TVS Motor Co and Yamaha Motor registered a 4% and 6% growth to 1,74,455 and 36,581 units respectively.

HMSI, however, continued to report strong numbers on the back of robust demand for its Activa scooter. During April, HMSI sold 1,98,831 units, a jump of 45.5% from 1,36,622 units it sold same month last year.