Car Sales Rise in India
MUMBAI—India’s top car makers posted higher March auto sales as customers bought in anticipation of this month’s price increases and as demand for diesel vehicles continued to grow.
Several auto makers have recently increased vehicle prices after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on March 16 raised the base excise tax on most Indian-made goods, including automobiles, to 12% from 10%.
Sales at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. gained for a third straight month, touching 125,952 vehicles, up 3% from a year earlier. Local sales for India’s biggest car maker by sales increased 2% to 112,724 units and exports jumped 15% to 13,228 vehicles.
It was the auto maker’s best-ever monthly sales performance, thanks to demand for models such as the Ritz and Swift hatchbacks and the Swift DZire sedan, which are also available in diesel variants. Sales of gasoline cars such as the Alto and WagonR fell.
Consumer preference is shifting toward diesel vehicles as prices of the fuel are regulated by the government, making it cheaper than gasoline. Overall demand has been hit by rising interest rates and fuel prices.
Chrysler Poised to Lead US Auto Sales Gains as Gas Rises: Cars
Heidi Vouri got a new job 35 miles from home and commuting in a 14-year-old gas guzzler doesn’t cut it with fuel prices rising. Her solution: Buy a new car.
“I’m definitely shopping for some gas mileage,” said Vouri, 23, who lives near Indianapolis and started work as a private investigator in December. To replace the 1998 GMC Jimmy she drove through college, she has set her sights on a 2012 Subaru Impreza hatchback, which is rated to deliver as much as 30 mpg in combined city and highway driving.
Her experience shows that rising gas prices can help spur demand for new vehicles. Job gains and buyers who put off car purchases during the recession are driving the fastest three- month auto-sales pace in four years, even as a gallon of gasoline became 20 percent more expensive. Analysts are boosting 2012 industry sales estimates and automakers are increasing production.
Light-vehicle sales in March, set for release tomorrow, may have run at a 14.5 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, the average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That would exceed the 13.1 million pace from a year earlier and set an average rate of 14.6 million for the first quarter, ahead of analysts’ estimates for full-year deliveries. Small-car sales were especially strong.
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