First time in three years, car sales grew in FY15 by 4.99 per cent to 1.87 million units

Hyundai achieves highest-ever domestic sales

Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), the country's second largest car manufacturer and the largest passenger car exporter registered domestic sales of 39,525 units and exports of 10,215 units with cumulative sales of 49,740 units for the month of March 2015.

Commenting on the March sales, Rakesh Srivastava, Sr. VP-Sales and Marketing, HMIL said, "In a market with weak sentiments, Hyundai achieved its highest-ever single month sales of 39,525 units with highest-ever financial Year sales of 4,20,668 units. The market share of 16.3 per cent was highest-ever with strong performance of successful launch of new models like Elite, i20 Active, Xcent and Verna and lead by strong marketing initiatives to engage rural markets and repeat buyers."

"The 2015 outlook seems challenging as currently there is low traction in the market with weak delivery on macro-economic parameters and on low customer's sentiments. We are hopeful that an environment will be created to bring-in investment and create employment that will give the required thrust to grow the industry."

Meanwhile, HMIL sets a new record in its interaction on social media. It now boasts the largest fan base on Facebook in auto category with over 5.5 million fans in India. It has secured over 17.5 million video views on YouTube. These are a part of Hyundai's strategy to actively reach out to a larger cross section of customer base and engage on a real time basis through social media platforms.

Ford Motor Company posted its best U.S. retail sales in nine years

Ford Motor Company posted its best U.S. retail sales in nine years, driven by strong demand for its new products, including F-Series, Mustang, and Transit.

Ford sales analyst, Erick Merkle explains "F-Series really supported our best retail sales month, in nine years, for the month of March. It's retail sales were up 10 percent and this is really a reflection of how quickly they're moving on dealer lots at 18 days to turn in the month of March."

Another major sales increase took place with Mustang. Merkle says over 12,600 cars posted a 36 percent increase and there is no slowing down.

Transit, along with Transit Connect and E-Series provided a 42 percent increase in total Ford van sales with over 20,800 vehicles sold in the month of March. "Explorer sales were up 17 percent, with sales of 20,765 and this gives us our best March Explorer sales peformance since 2005" he added.

Lincoln took the center stage at the New York Auto show, and it shows no signs of slowing down as retail sales rose 7 percent versus a year ago. "And for the first quarter retail sales at Lincoln were up 10 percent. A lot of that is being driven from our new products, like the MKC which last month sold over 2000 vehicles and also the new Lincoln Navigator which was launched last fall, it had a 47 percent increase in March", Merkle added.

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