Four-wheeler sales in India for December 2016

Unlike two-wheeler manufacturers, December 2016 has turned out to be a good month for almost all four-wheeler manufacturers. Although demonetisation has impacted showroom walk-ins and bookings, new car sales weren't affected. Nissan Motor India has announced a 21 per cent jump while Tata Motors has registered a 35 per cent increase in sales. Here's a compilation of the sales numbers from individual manufacturers.

Honda Cars India

Honda Cars India has registered a 19 per cent drop in sales with 10,071 units sold in December 2016. It had sold 12,379 units in December 2015. The company had exported 448 units in December 2016.  Its highest selling model was the Amaze with 3,322 units sold followed by the City with 2,898 units sold.

Yoichiro Ueno, president and CEO, Honda Cars India Ltd. said, "After a severe impact of demonetisation in November, December 2016 sales continued to be challenging. We expect the New Year to gradually bring back normalcy in the market. During 2016, HCIL sold a total of 1,56,107 units in domestic market."

Nissan Motor India

Nissan Motor India has announced a 21 per cent rise in sales with 3,711 units in December 2016. During December 2015, the carmaker had sold 3,065 units.

In an official release, Arun Malhotra, managing director of Nissan Motor India, said that the company has achieved healthy sales in December despite the challenges of the demonetisation issue. He attributed the sales growth to the strong market response to the Datsun redi-Go and the redi-Go SPORT.

In October 2016, the company announced that it would launch eight new models by 2021.  The carmaker is aiming for a 5 per cent market share by 2020.

Renault India

Renault India has reported a sales growth of 9.2 per cent with 11,244 units sold in December 2016. During the corresponding month in 2015, the carmaker had sold 10,292 units. Overall, 2016 turned out to be a good year as the carmaker registered a growth of 146 per cent with 1,32,235 units sold in the calendar year. In 2015, Renault India had sold 53,847 units.

Sumit Sawhney, CEO and managing director, Renault India Operations, said, "We are on track with a 4.5 per cent market share at the end of 2016, achieving a robust three-digit growth over 2015. Our focus for 2017 will be to continue and build on our growth journey. We plan to launch at least one new product every year, over the next five years."

Tata Motors

Just like Nissan and Renault, Tata Motors too has ended 2016 on a high. It registered an impressive 35 per cent growth in sales with 10,827 units sold in the domestic market. The company's sales from exports registered a growth of 12 per cent with 5,119 vehicles exported. In December 2015, the company exported 4,557 vehicles.

Commenting on the company's sales performance, Mayank Pareek, president, passenger vehicle business, Tata Motors, said, "We continued our growth momentum in December on the back of robust sales, led by positive response for the Tata Tiago. This has resulted in planned stock reduction in the network. We also saw good traction on retail sales towards the end of the month. The new year holds tremendous opportunity for further growth as we enhance our product line-up with a slew of new models."

Tata Motors is expected to launch the Hexa MPV on January 18, 2017.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor

In December 2016, Toyota Kirloskar Motor registered a growth of 29 per cent by selling 14,093 units. During the same month last year, the company had sold 10,683 units. The manufacturer also exported 1,346 vehicles in December 2016. The company says that their new Innova Crysta and new Fortuner are in high demand among buyers.

Commenting on the monthly sales, N Raja, director and senior vice president, sales and marketing, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, "December is usually a high-selling month as most manufacturers try and liquidate the year-end stocks and come up with schemes, offering huge discounts on products. In our case, we ensure a lean inventory at all times both on our side as well as the dealers, and we have been able to maintain the same in the year end as well. Having said that, the number of walk-ins at the dealership and enquiries have been impacted due to demonetisation in the past two months. Although we saw a slight surge in footfalls and customer enquiries in December, the effects of demonetisation will reflect until the first quarter of this year."