Tata Motors expects sales to fall in coming fiscal

Mumbai: Tata Motors says that while it would finish 2004-05 with a 27 per cent rise in sales at 1,78,000 units, it expects passenger car sales to fall in 2005-06.

Rajiv Dube, vice-president, commercial, Tata Motors, said that the growth of sales of automobiles would slow down due to uncertainties like rising prices, pollution norms, value-added tax and oil price hike.

He said that till February 2005, Tata Motors had sold 1,59,000 passenger vehicles in the domestic market, clocking a 27 per cent growth against the industry rate of 17 per cent. He forecast that the industry growth would slow down in 2005-06.

Dube also announced the launch of five new variants in the segments Tata Motors is present in and that the company would launch new generation cars and utility vehicles in 2008.

TML sold 95,000 Indicas, 34,000 Indigos, and 30,000 Sumos and Safaris during the first 11 months of the current year.

Tata Motors vehicles sales have been consistently rising in the past six months. In September last year the company registered a 25 per cent rise in sales, followed by a 30 per cent rise in October and a 24 per cent rise in November 2004 against the corresponding months in the previous year.