Indian Car Sales Figures - December 2014

Source: Economic Times

This Christmas, Santa bestowed the Auto Industry with a positive push and the Industry ended the year on a positive note. The gifts offered by Santa were particularly highest ever discounts for the year, news of increased car prices in 2015 from all OEMs and the fear of increased Excise Duty in 2015 from the Government. December thus proved to be cheerful for majority of the manufacturers and the dealer fraternity as well was successful in reporting high retail figures. The inventory was rationalized at OEM & Dealers end - also the end customer benefited from hefty discounts and pre-excise hike prices. Hence a win-win situation for all parties.

December 2014 Sales Figures - Pan India

December 2014 saw the start of dispatches (from OEM to dealers) of 2 big launches slated in Jan 2015 - Tata Bolt & Datsun GO+. Both the cars are part of the vital strategy for Tata & Datsun/Nissan. While Tata has tasted a hint of success from Zest - Bolt would allow it to get the lost numbers on board and vouch for the third largest OEM position strongly. Also GO+ will support the Datsun stable by bringing some buzz in the brand and expand the portfolio rightly for the automaker. GO+ will be significant for the Datsun stable to strengthen its presence in Indian market and gain the required volumes for 2015.

Maruti's performance was stellar and saw a 13% YoY increase. Alto's back into >20k figures and the recent facelift has boosted the brand positively. Celerio however has been not able to post consistent numbers (maybe it has lost the sole product with the AMT advantage). Ciaz slip in numbers has been a concern as well - challenging City will be quite a task for the sedan.

Hyundai successfully retired the Santro and the last car was dispatched in December'14. i20 Elite, i10 Grand, & i10 were the notable performers for the Korean major. However, the carlines which were struggling were - Xcent, Verna, Eon & Elantra.

Honda posted strong numbers for City and Amaze - all thanks to the 1.5L iDtec engine which proved revolutionary for Honda and has single handedly changed the fortune of the Japanese Automaker. Mobilio numbers however is a concern and the MUV is not performing as per expectations.

Mahindra nearly touched 10k figures for Bolero and the carline proved its worth yet again.However, other brands of the Indian SUV major saw a beating - even the all new Scorpio push rise in the sales figures as expected.

Another interesting statistic for the entire industry -

Source: Autocar

Also a look at the top 20 cars for Dec'14 -