Mahindra & Mahindra car sales drops 5 percent in January 2015

Mahindra & Mahindra enter 2015 with a drop in sales by 5 percent to the corresponding period in 2014. Total passenger car sales stood at 18,804 units in January 2015 compared to 19,792 units in January 2014. While the roll back in excise duty has been a blow for the auto industry in the interim, Mahindra is one of the worst hit due to the higher roll back on SUVs vis-à-vis sedans and hatchbacks.

Cumulative sales for Mahindra for this financial year are lower by 8 percent at about 1.71 lakh units. Last financial year, Mahindra had already sold over 1.86 lakh units by January. Speaking on the monthly performance, Pravin Shah, Chief Executive, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, “The first month of 2015 has not been encouraging as the effect of withdrawal of excise duty subsidy is clearly evident. Unfortunately, the segmented recovery which we were witnessing over the last couple of months has been impacted with the excise duty change. We do hope that the upcoming Budget has some positive news for the auto sector.”

A silver lining for January for Mahindra & Mahindra were better export numbers. The Group shipped out 2885 units of their SUVs, a growth of 22 percent to the corresponding period last year.