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New Delhi , July 15

DRIVEN by rising sales of manufacturers such as Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Engineering, domestic car sales jumped by 23 per cent in June 2003. Additionally, the spate of discount schemes and freebies on offer currently on various models helped increase sales during the period.

Total domestic sales increased to 52,029 units in June 2003 compared with 42,331 units in the same month last year, the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed.

Market leader Maruti Udyog saw its sales jump by 34.5 per cent to 24,540 units in June 2003 in the period, largely driven by sales of its bread-and-butter car, the Maruti 800.

Meanwhile, Hyundai's recently launched Santro Xing led to a 39.3 per cent jump in total sales of the company to 11,941 units in June 2003. The launch also helped Hyundai bridge the gap between itself and the leader in the B-segment, Maruti Udyog (which has models such as WagonR, Zen and Alto present in this segment).

The B-segment also saw a new entrant in the form of General Motors with its recently launched premium small car, the Opel Corsa Sail. The company sold 385 units of the Sail during the month.

Commercial vehicle sales, meanwhile, increased by 25 per cent to 18,330 units in June 2003, compared with 14,659 units in the same month last year. Both light commercial vehicles and medium and heavy commercial vehicles saw an increase in sales during the period.

Sales of commercial vehicles have been on an upward track due to the spate of developmental initiatives being undertaken in the infrastructure segment.

Two-wheelers do well: Two-wheeler sales registered an increase of 6.35 per cent to 4,19,396 units in June 2003, up from 394,324 units in June last year.

Interestingly, the month saw a reversal in trends with the scooter segment seeing a decent increase in sales, while the motorcycles segment saw a slowdown after witnessing double-digit growth for many months.

The scooter/scooterettee segment posted a growth of 6.30 per cent to 68,801 units in June 2003, compared with 64,718 units in the same month last year.

Sales were driven primarily by `new-age' scooter manufacturers such as Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India and Kinetic Engineering.

Motorcycle sales, however, slowed down and increased by about 8.86 per cent to 3,23,873 units in June, compared with 2,97,504 units in June 2002.

The three major manufacturers - Bajaj Auto, TVS, and Hero Honda - saw a modest increase in their sales during the month. However, LML with its recent launches saw sales of its motorcycles jump almost seven-fold during the period to 16,781 units. Moped sales dived by 16.7 per cent to 26,722 units in the month.

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