Maruti reports 1.8% rise in domestic car sales, but slight dip overall

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country's largest car-maker, today reported a marginal decline in total sales at 1,09,104 units in February, against 1,09,567 units in the same month last year.

The company said its domestic sales rose by 1.8 per cent during the month to 99,758 units as against 97,955 units in February 2013.

Sales of mini segment cars – the now phased-out M800, the Alto, A-Star and WagonR - declined by 9.6 per cent to 37,342 units as compared to 41,311 units in the year-ago month, MSI said in a statement.

The company said sales of the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo and Ritz increased by 19.4 per cent to 28,672 units in February as against 24,021 units in the same month last year.

The sales of popular compact sedan Dzire rose marginally during the month to 18,353 units as against 18,316 units in February, 2013.

The company's mid-sized sedan SX4 registered a 6 per cent increase in sales at 228 units as against 215 units in the same month last year. There was no sale of premium sedan Kizashi during the month.

Sales of utility vehicles - Gypsy, Grand Vitara and Ertiga - stood at 5,231 units in February this year, down 12.2 per cent from 5,957 units in the corresponding month last year.

Sales of vans - Omni and Eeco - rose by 22.1 per cent to 9,932 units in February, against 8,133 units in the same period of previous year.

The sales were further propped up by the newly launched Celerio compact car. Since its launch on 6 February, Maruti has sold more than 20,000 units of the model. India's first automated manual transmission car, the Celerio is a replacement for the Estilo and A-star. Helped by the Celerio, sales in company's compact car segment increased 19 per cent over year-ago figures.

The company's exports however dropped 19.5 per cent to 9,346 units as compared to 11,612 units in the same month last year, MSI said.