Maruti, Tata Motors and Hyundai drive into New Year in top gear Report double-digit (semiconductors) used in elec- tronic control unit. Demand growth y-o-y; but CV continues to remain strong segment marred by even after the festival season and as we get into the new supply-chain issues year,” Veejay Nakra, Chief Exec- utive Officer, Automotive Divi- OUR BUREAU sion, M&M, said. New Delhi, January 1 The automobile industry Truck rentals ended 2020 on a good note December turned out be a lean with most players — passenger month for truck rentals as vehicles, two-wheelers or tract- freight rates dropped by 3-4 ors — reporting double-digit per cent across the country, growth in December 2020 on a while diesel prices rose by year-on-year basis. around ₹2/litre, Indian Found- In the passenger vehicle seg- ation of Transport Research ment, Maruti Suzuki India re- and Training (IFTRT), said on ported a 15 per cent growth Friday. year-on-year (YoY) to 1,40,754 Most importantly, the truck units in December compared rentals during the calender with 1,22,784 units in Decem- year 2020 went up up by 4.8 ber 2019. per cent on differentroutes ex- The second largest passen- cept for the period of lock- ger vehicle maker Hyundai down on account of steep in- Motor India reported a 25 per crease of 15.7 per cent hike in cent growth YoY during the diesel price over the year, SP period, through successful Singh, Senior Fellow & Co- models like the Creta and i20. ordinator, IFTRT, said. Going forward, the compan- “The most alarming has ies are optimistic about the been the conflict between the momentum and hope to con- interest of truckers and that of tinue better sales. goods booking agents/ trans- port intermediaries as truck- Multiple challenges ers had a very bad year due to “The world has witnessed mul- fleet under utilisation and tiple challenges in 2020. How- poor cargo availability,” he ever, Hyundai has emerged said. stronger out of this crisis, lead- Home-grown firms sponse for its ‘New Forever’ Interestingly, while India Inc ing the way for economic re- Mahindra & Mahindra and range, which is being suppor- has been pushing up prices of vival. Looking towards the fu- Tata Motors also recorded ted by continuous ramp up of most finished products like ture, we are proceeding with growth on the back of pent-up supplies,” Shailesh Chandra, consumer durables, automo- cautious optimism and anti- demand, strong festival season President, Passenger Vehicles biles, FMCG, construction ma- cipate green shoots of recov- and shift towards personal Business Unit, Tata Motors, terial and general merchand- ery in 2021,” SS Kim, Managing mobility. said. ise, it appears to be adopting a Director and Chief Executive However, concerns linger However, M&M said there strategy to bring down pro- Officer, HMIL, said. around the commercial are still some bottlenecks duction levels as consumer MG Motor India also closed vehicles segment, as the mar- around supply chain, which spending remains timid. the year on a strong note, with ket is yet to witness higher are impacting the demand This slow down in volumes 5,000 Hector and 200 EV book- growth and the industry is side of the business. is expected to continue over ings in December, the highest waiting for improvement in “Our overall sales have been the next two quarters at least, for 2020, it said. the supply chain. Two-wheeler affected due to the continuing unless the government invests The carmaker reported re- and tractor companies have supply-chain challenges re- more in the infrastructure sec- tail sales of 4,010 units in also seen growth in sales dur- lated to the constantly chan- tor. The upcoming Budget December 2020, a growth of 33 ing the month. ging global environment, would clear the mist and steer per cent against the same “Tata Motors PV business has more specifically the supply the economy in the right direc- month previous year. been witnessing strong re- shortage of micro-processors tion, Singh added.