New milestone

New Delhi, June 1: Maruti Suzuki has crossed the 1-lakh sales mark in a month for the first time.

Sales in May jumped 28 per cent to 1,02,175 units from 79,872 units a year ago.

“This is the highest monthly sales for the company. We are trying to beat the usual cycle of low-selling months during the period following the budget and before the advent of the monsoon,” Mayank Pareek, executive officer (marketing and sales), said.

He said the April-June quarter usually saw low growth, and demand picked up only with the start of the festive season in September-October. Maruti’s May performance has bettered the company’s previous record of 96,650 units in February.

Domestic sales jumped 27.20 per cent to 90,041 units from 70,785 units in May last year.

Big cities contributed substantially to the growth. “The big towns contributed robustly with the top 10 cities registering a growth of 25-26 per cent,” he said. Rural markets saw an increase of 16-17 per cent.

Exports surged 33.53 per cent to 12,134 units from 9,087 units a year ago.

Sales of Maruti 800 rose 9.50 per cent to 2,558 units against 2,336 units in May 2009. The A2 segment — comprising the Alto, WagonR, Estilo, Swift, A-Star and Ritz — witnessed a 16.60 per cent growth, its best ever for a month, at 62,679 units compared with 53,760 units in the year-ago period.

Pareek said the company’s best-selling model Alto enjoyed its best month ever with deliveries crossing 25,000 units. Sales in the A3 segment — consisting of the SX4 and Dzire — increased 60.47 per cent to 10,883 units from 6,782 units a year ago.

The country’s second largest car maker — Hyundai Motor India — has posted a 15.52 per cent domestic growth at 27,151 units in May against 23,503 units a year ago.

Total sales increased 7.30 per cent to 46,808 units from 43,624 units last year.

However, exports declined 2.31 per cent during the month.

Tata Motors have also registered a 41.26 per cent rise in May deliveries at 56,779 units compared with 40,196 units a year ago.

The homegrown auto major’s domestic sales grew 37.53 per cent to 52,801 units from 38,392 units in the same month last year.

Exports jumped over two-fold to 3,978 units from 1,804 units in the year-ago period.

May brought glad tidings for bike manufacturers as well.

Hero Honda reported its highest monthly sales at 4,35,933 units, registering a 13.92 per cent increase from 3,82,678 units last year.

The previous highest monthly sales record at 4,15,137 units was set in August.

Bajaj Auto also recorded its highest sales at 2,99,442 units, a 61.56 per cent rise from 1,85,341 units in the year-ago period.

However, total sales include the scooter segment, from which the company has exited.