Sensing stiff competition from Maruti Suzuki with the all-new Alto 800 with an aggressive price tag, Hyundai and Tata Motors announced deep price cuts and launch of new special edition variants, respectively to beat the market leader.
Maruti Udyog Ltd, India's biggest carmaker, has posted a 69.8 per cent rise in sales in July 2003, helped by a continued spurt in demand for the entry- level model 'Maruti-800'.
The previous highest sales figure stood at 1,08,006 units in September 2010. It was also for the fifth time in this fiscal that the company's monthly sales crossed the one lakh mark.
While sales of compact cars, including models such as Swift, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno and Dzire declined, sales of utility vehicles, including Vitara Brezza, S-Cross and Ertiga, increased 26.3 per cent to 19,177 units as compared to 15,178 in the year-ago month.
The company had sold 50 units of SX4 sedan in August 2014.
After the July 18 violence at the Manesar plant in which one senior executive was killed, the company had fired 546 workers.
The vehicles came under attack in the Savni area on the Rajouri-Thanamandi-Surankote road around 3.30 pm.
In February, Maruti cut vehicle prices by between Rs 8,502 and Rs 30,984 across models after the excise duty reduction was announced.
With swanky showrooms and VR-enabled sales platforms Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, and Skoda bet on shine and gloss,and place their faith in experiential branding.
Although rising interest rates threaten to push passenger cars to the middle lane, Maruti Udyog is geared to continue on the fast track with its new car models.
Country's largest car maker draws nearly half of its sales from exchange programmes, rural focus.
Sales for the same month previous year were at 84,804 units, Maruti Suzuki India said.
The task of usurping three leading brands is far from easy. However, Amaze has shown it can be attempted.
The government has decided to go slow on sale of its remaining shares in Maruti Udyog and complete the process by next fiscal as stock markets remain uncertain.
In April, MSI had recalled 1,03,311 units of its popular models -- Ertiga, Swift and DZire -- manufactured between November 12, 2013 and February 4, 2014 to replace faulty fuel filler neck.
MUL would lift the month-long lockout and resume production at the violence-hit Manesar unit from Tuesday.
India's largest automobile manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki is planning to launch the company's entry-level sports utility vehicle, Jimny in the country by the year-end.
While Hyundai Motor India reported a marginal growth, Toyota Kirloskar Motor witnessed a dip in sales last month.
A senior Maruti official was killed and 100 injured in violence at the plant last week.
The company had recently stopped production of petrol models, including the Alto, M800, A-Star, Estilo and Omni for three days to prevent inventories piling up further.
Maruti Suzuki India said it would be investing Rs 1,250 crore (Rs 12.50 billion) to double capacity at its K-series petrol engine unit in Gurgaon to 500,000 by 2012.
Open order books in February breach 700,000; wait period for some models exceed a year.
It has hiked prices of diesel variants of Ciaz and Ertiga models with smart hybrid technology
Two-wheeler exports from India have decreased by 20 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 1.69 million units in the first half (H1) of 2023-24 (FY24) due to a challenging geopolitical situation and foreign exchange (forex) crises in key markets such as South Asia, industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) said on Monday. On the other hand, passenger vehicle (PV) exports in H1FY24 increased by 5 per cent to 336,754 units because the key markets are much more diversified worldwide, Vinod Aggarwal, president, Siam, told reporters during a press conference. The Russia-Ukraine war, which started in February 2022, has brought significant instability to global fuel prices.
Foreign share holding limit in Maruti Suzuki India has reached trigger limit and any further investment by FIIs will be allowed only after RBI's approval.
The current headcount in Maruti stands at around 9,350, including the 200 employees it hired since the beginning of this fiscal.
Wipro was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 4.34 per cent, followed by HCL Tech, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Infosys, Power Grid, Tata Consultancy Services and State Bank of India. Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Axis Bank, Nestle, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Asian Paints were among the laggards.
The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission on Thursday advised auto giants Maruti and Hyundai not to target each other in advertisements and asked Maruti to file its reply to a complaint filed by its rival carmaker.
7 Maruti models among top 10 best selling passenger vehicles in April
Prices third Nexa car aggressively at Rs 4.59 lakh, to take on Hyundai's i10Grand and M&M'S KUV100.
Stiff competition and rising input costs have affected margins and earnings outlook.
Maruti has committed Rs 5 crore towards the programme.
Shows i10 in poor light two weeks after Hyundai took swipes at Ritz.
CarToq reports that Maruti will carry out that facelift for the Swift and Swift Dzire in the first quarter of the next year.
Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, Nestle, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, Tata Consultancy Services, IndusInd Bank and State Bank of India were the major laggards. Infosys, JSW Steel, NTPC and Power Grid were the gainers.
Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies has rejigged his equity portfolios. In his Asia ex-Japan long-only portfolio, he has added Axis Bank (5 per cent weightage) and increased holding in Larsen & Toubro (L&T) by one percentage point. This, Wood said, will be paid for by removing the investment in ICICI Lombard General Insurance and reducing the investments in HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries (RIL) by one percentage point each.
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