Auto India, Car India

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As the domestic of auto market is on a downhill sliding position due to extensive fuel hikes and increase in the interest rates of the banks, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki have decided to cut its production as the auto industry brace up for single digit sales growth rate this economy.

However, car producers are hoping positively for a sales growth due to new launches, including MSI’s Swift, Volkswagen’s Jetta, Honda’s Jazz and Brio and newly launched General Motor’s Beat, diesel version.
A Tata spokesperson said, “Our production is exactly as per demand. We keep in mind the need to keep inventories at both the company and dealers’ end in balance.”
He further added, “If there is a requirement for adjustment in production, the company does it. At the moment there is a slowdown in demand.”
If we look at the figures, Tata’s production in July was down by 26.96 percent to 19,985 units as against 27,362 units in the same month last year. Its domestic car sales were also decreased to 43.13 percent to 13,997 units.
Last week, Maruti Suzuki India said that it has cut off the production of many of its models including its bestsellers so far like, Alto (5%) during this month due to decrease in demand in the domestic market.
Shinzo Nakanishi MSI Managing Director and CEO had said that the company has reduced its production of almost all the models, except Swift and DZiRE in August due to bad market conditions.This year in July, MSI’s car production was at 72,587 units, decreased by 21.08 per cent if compared to the July of last year, mainly because of non-production of Swift. Its domestic sales were reduced by 31.04 per cent to 52,483 units.
While saying about the market’s bizarre condition, other auto biggies like GM India, Honda Siel Cars India and Hyundai Motor India, though have not taken any such steps so far but at the same point, they are hoping to boost the market with their new launches.
Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice- President (Sales and Marketing) of Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) said, “The industry is in a bad shape. Yet, there are a lot of new launches happening. Any new launch gives an impetus to the market and that should help the market. Moreover, the festive season is round the corner and we are hopeful that the demand will revive.”
General Motors India (GMI) Vice-President P Balendran said, ” a lot of uncertainties like high interest rate and fuel prices were having a negative impact on auto sales.”
This week there are few cars set for launch in the market out of which one is Maruti Suzuki’s new Swift and Volkswagen and HSCI launching new versions of Jetta and Jazz respectively.