The New Year has not really given any brighter picture to the auto companies. Nearly all the companies have reported decline in their sales for the month of January 2009. Although the Indian auto companies have failed to impress the domestic customers, nevertheless, the exports figures have shown a remarkable increase up to 63 percent.
India has really emerged as an export hub from small cars with the rise of 63.01 percent in its exports figures of passenger car sales to the overseas market. According to SIAM, exports of passenger cars from India during the 10 month period of the current fiscal were 271,999 units compared to 166,859 units.
On the other hand, the domestic market remained low profile with Indian customers still shying away from the market due to absence of credit and all the car maker further increasing costs of their models in the country. According to the figures released by SIAM, the total vehicle sales in the country stood at 768,622 units against 830,469 units, while domestic passenger car sales declined by 3.2 per cent in January 2009 to 110,212 units, from 113,894 units last year.
Two-wheeler segment recorded 5.8 percent decline but the biggest drag came from the commercial vehicles which recorded 50.96 percent decline in its sales.
