Monday, April 09, 2012
By Manoj Kumawat
Budget blues and impending petrol price hike pose meek new fiscal for auto industry
The car market in India has shown positive signs despite of the current high fuel prices and the recent excise hike in the Union Budget. Good sales in January to March were possible due to some of the best car launches in this period. It was at this time that the compact sedan New Maruti Swift Dzire was launched, Renault Pulse also came in. Besides the existing ones also were given a facelift such as Maruti Swift, Toyota Innova, Chevrolet Tavera and others, all these helped the market grow despite of leg pulling by fuel prices and excise hike.
| See More Maruti Swift Dzire Photos | Get Maruti Swift Dzire Price |
Being an indispensible and major part of the economy, if the auto sector is healthy and growing, it means the overall economy is on the uptrend. In mid March, the excise duty on cars was increased and thus car prices rose consequently, will the auto sector be able to keep the pace? Industry reports suggest that last year was a meek year for the auto industry in India and Maruti India was the ultimate sufferer. However, the sector did pick up in the last quarter of the last fiscal and there was more than 11 percent growth till February 2012.
| See More Renault Pulse Photos | Get Renault Pulse Price |
The greatest achievers were Tata Motors with Tata Nano, Tata Sumo Grande and Tata Safari sales catching unprecedented heights. Next big business was made by Mahindra that sold Mahindra Xylo and Mahindra XUV 500 in good number in February and March 2012. Maruti India with its latest addition new Swift Dzire compact sedan managed to get first in lifetime sales of 1.12 lakh cars. Similarly, Honda City, Audi A6 and Volkswagen Vento and Volkswagen Polo sales were also promising during the fiscal.
| See More Toyota Innova Photos | Get Toyota Innova Price |
However, the good time is expected to be over for car industry in India and excise hike coupled with the proposed hike in petrol and diesel prices as well as impending rise in inflation will drive car buyers out of the car market. Still, small cars and diesel cars are believed to sustain the bad days and Maruti Alto, Hyundai Eon and other diesel cars are able to save the car industry from extreme dip.
