India car makers show mixed sales trend

Some of India's auto giants reported on Tuesday a modest increase and some a drop in sales of new cars for the month of December, despite recent festive discounts and new models launched. Tata Motors, India's leading vehicle maker, showed a 51 percent year-on-year drop in sales at 14,185 units, compared to 28,916 the same time last year. The Indian unit of Hyundai Motor, the country's second-largest car maker, said its sales in December slid 2.5 percent to 47,833 cars from a year earlier. But Ford's India sales grew nine percent to 6,517 vehicles in December while exports more than doubled to a record 4,382 cars from a year earlier. India's largest passenger car maker, Maruti Suzuki, has yet to report sales data for December. India has been one of the world's fastest-growing car markets in recent years and global auto makers raced to set up factories to supply local demand. But purchases slowed sharply in 2012 as consumers grew wary of committing to big-ticket items due to the economic slowdown, costlier auto loans and high fuel costs. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers last year slashed its car sales growth forecast, for the financial year to March 2013, to between one and three percent from an earlier nine to 11 percent forecast. India's economic growth eased to 5.3 percent year-on-year in the July to September quarter, extending a prolonged downturn, while interest rates remain high as the central bank seeks to tame stubbornly high inflation.