The new financial year has begun on a positive note for Indian automobile companies with a stellar growth recorded in car and bike sales. This spells wonderful news for the Indian automobile industry which was going through a lull after the announcement of what was said to be a favorable budget to the industry as a whole. Battling high interest rates and a slowdown in retail financing, automobile companies made an impressive comeback with the likes of Maruti recording a 22.4 percent growth in their sales.

Maruti Suzuki, the country's leading carmaker managed to sell 59539 units in the month of April 2008 against 48652 units sold in the same period last year. Hyundai Motors too saw a 36.7 percent & growth in their sales with 21051 units sold as against 15728 units sold in the same period last year. Hyundai's growth is owed largely to its highly successful hatch the i10 which has been drawing great reviews.

The other carmaker, which saw a rise in its sales, was General Motors India with 5563 units sold in April 2008 as against 4474 units sold in the same period last year, a growth of 24.3 percent.

The small car segment as a whole saw a 27.3 percent jump in sales, while the mid-size segment grew by a whopping 97.1 percent, thanks mainly to the newly launched Maruti Dzire, which has received a good response.

The growth in sales has not been restricted to cars alone. Bikes too have recorded an increase in their sales. The total two-wheeler sales grew by 4.9% at 1.09 Lakh units sold against 1.04 Lakh units sold in April 2007 and leading the way is Bajaj Auto with a recorded growth of 24 percent in their sales.

Bajaj Auto, the country's oldest two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturer sold 2.03 lakh units in the month of April 2008, as against 1.64 lakh units sold last year in the same period. Making most of the boom, Bajaj plans to launch four new bikes in the 125cc and above segment in 2008-2009. Bajaj's archrival TVS too saw a growth in their sales chart in the month of April 2008. With 58,202 units sold, TVS recorded a 8.7 percent increase in its sales.

All was well at the country's leading two-wheeler manufacturer, Hero Honda's camp as well. With 2.86 lakh units sold in April 2008 against 2.62 lakh units sold same period last year, Hero Honda recorded an impressive 9 percent growth. According to industry analysts, the price cut following the excise duty slash in the budget was responsible for attracting consumers to the market. They also claimed that the low base due to below par performance in April last year helped most of the companies to make a growth. It is worth mentioning that bike manufacturers had hikes prices of some models in April to offset high input costs.