November 2012 Sales Figures and Analysis

The Big Picture – The month of festivals usually turns out to be the Bestselling month of the year for every manufacturer in India. But unlike the predictions made by many, market did not see any boost in sales in November. For almost every company, the month of October ended with dispatches on higher note to address forthcoming festive season demand. This made November figures to appear relatively small and sales trend is seen heading downwards. Usually many buyers avoid buying car at year end to avoid adverse impact on resale value. This also might have caused fall in sales figures of November. Almost every manufacturer has suffered loss in sales except Chevrolet, Volkswagen and Nissan. Every other manufacturer has recorded drop in sales ranging from 1% to shocking 54%. Numerous fresh launches and upgrades have failed to deliver what they have promised. Maruti Suzuki holds the number one spot, followed by Hyundai at second place and Mahindra and Mahindra at third place. Thus, the month of March will still carry the crown of Bestselling month of year. Overall, industry recorded 8.06% fall in sales compared to previous month. Hence ‘Disappointing‘, is the word which can describe car sales report for the month of November.

Top 20 – This table has always been territory of Maruti Suzukis and Hyundais. As always, Alto 800 with its fresh appeal holds the top spot as 23,550 units of it were sold in November. Standing at second place Swift’s sales figures are steadily increasing and heading towards its full potential. Then there are Dzire and WagonR holding third and fourth place respectively, followed by Mahindra Bolero-the Alto of utility segment, at fifth place. Thing to note in this table is downfall of Toyota Innova, as it is continuously losing its market share to Ertiga, Duster etc. and has ended up losing four spots. Also Tata Indigo and Manza range has lost badly and is out of this table now which allowed Nano to slip in at number 20.

Company Wise Break Up – Maruti Suzuki bet big on Alto 800 and it is proved be right as they sold 23,550 units of it. Swift is back on track and is now inches away from its past average sales figure of 19,000 to 20,000 units. Ertiga is doing wonders for the company and it looks like the limitation at the manufacturing facility is the only reason which is restricting its sales. At the bottom of chart, we will see Kizashi doing whopping 71 numbers. This sudden rise in sale might be a result of stock clearance exercise carried out recently. On the other hand, Hyundai is pushing i10 very hard and is few units short of 10,000 mark. Also the launch of Alto 800 has not affected Eon much. As for the first time Eon is standing ahead of new i20. Overall Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai ended November with fall in sale of 5.33% and 2.87% respectively.

The distance between Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra is increasing day by day as Tata Motors is losing its sales very badly and as every product from Mahindra and Mahindra is received well by customers. Almost every product of Mahindra and Mahindra seems to have reached saturation as sales figure of each of them is lying constantly in their own range. On the other hand Tata Motor’s sales record is full of irregularities in recent history. As we can see Indigo, Manza and Nano have fared badly. But remarkably 341 units of Aria have been sold in November thanks to stripped down version launched recently. Overall, Mahindra and Mahindra have recorded fall in sales of 8.64% and Tata Motors have recorded 14.62% drop in sale.

Now days, Toyota Innova is facing trouble as many manufacturers are pitting their offerings against it. Maruti Suzuki with Ertiga, Renault with Duster, Mahindra and Mahindra with its Quanto and Xylo are proving to be more practical option for personal users and thus stealing away the sales from Innova. This has caused Toyota to lose it sales by 15.71%. Honda has pushed really hard in October and hence is showing relative drop of 54.10% in sales in November. Honda has launched CNG variant of City but it has failed to lure customers and hence Honda City recorded lowest ever sales in 2012 calendar year. Rest all models are performing at average levels.

Sail U-VA is the sole reason behind Chevrolet’s gain in sales volume in November. But refreshed Spark is still waiting for a spark to ignite its sales graph. There is 7.17% rise in November sales due to new offerings, but it will be interesting to see if Chevrolet can maintain this pace in December too. While launching its new Figo, Ford said that ‘Change is wonderful thing’. But it seems that customers are not finding any wonder in New Figo and hence it failed to record any increase in its sale. Thus leaving Ford to suffer a loss in sales of 21.55%.

Volkswagen is coming out from its re-learning phase and hence it is showing steady growth of sales but on the other hand Skoda is still missing out on the same front. Volkswagen’s small growth in November sales is driven by Vento. For Skoda, except Rapid (which just managed to sell above 1000 mark) every other offering is performing below average and that is the matter of concern for company. Overall Volkswagen managed to record marginal gain in sales of 1.32% and Skoda met a fall in sales of 9.49%.

Nissan is the highest sales gainer in the month of November as it has recorded 50.40% gain in sales with major contributor being Sunny. Renault is let down by fall in sales of every model except Scala. Renault’s sales has recorded 2.70% drop over last month.

With hefty price cut of Rs. 2 lakhs, Mitsubishi sold 152 units of Pajero Sport in November and total 7 units of all other models combined. Fiat Punto has hit rock bottom and has seen worst figures of year 2012. Overall, Hindustan Motors and Mitsubishi recorded fall in sales of 1.18% and Fiat recorded fall in sales of 52.46%.