New Delhi/Chennai, Jan 2 (IANS) Battling high interest rates and rising fuel costs, the Indian automotive industry Monday reported a mixed sales result for December with sales of Maruti Suzuki declining and that of Tata Motors and Hero Motorcorp rising.

Passenger car market leader Maruti Suzuki sales dropped 7 percent with 92,161 vehicles sold in the month against 99,225 vehicles during December 2010.

Total domestic sales were logged at 77,475 units, a 13.4 percent drop from the 89,469 in December 2010.

Indicating a weakening in consumer demand, sales of the company’s smaller-sized vehicles including Maruti 800, Alto, A-Star and Wagon-R dropped 15.6 percent in December.

Rival car makers, however, saw a growth in sales on the back of greater demand for diesel vehicles and higher discounts.

Tata Motors reported good sales figures for December. The company’s total sales, including exports, in the month rose by 22 percent at 82,278 units.

Chennai-based Hyundai Motor’s December sales, including exports, rose 3.64 percent at 48,949 units from 47,228 units sold in the like period of last year. However, it reported a 12.8 percent jump in domestic sales in December 2011 against the year-ago period.

“An increase of 12.8 percent in sales in December gives us cause for some cheer in a year that has been below expectations. We don’t expect an upturn in the market in the near future,” Arvind Saxena, director, marketing and sales, said in a statement.

Japanese Toyota saw a whopping 151 percent increase in its sales for December at 15,948 units.

“Despite challenging market conditions and unfortunate occurrence of Tsunami in Japan and floods in Thailand, the company has seen good sales,” said Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director, marketing, Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

Ford India, the Indian subsidiary of American Ford Motor Company, closed last month selling 5,979 units, up from 4,301 units sold during December 2010.

“It’s incredibly gratifying to see that our domestic sales have grown at such a steady pace, particularly given the challenging market environment,” said Ford India President and Managing Director Michael Boneham.

Industry watchers say car sales to improve in coming months, with the country’s central bank holding rates and inflation showing early signs of moderating.

However, two and three wheeler companies reported modest growth with Hero MotoCorp reporting 7.8 percent growth in sales in December 2011 with 540,276 units against 501,111 units in December 2010.

Bajaj Auto reported a 10 percent growth in sales for December 2011 at 3,05,690 units against 2,76,803 units during the like period of the previous financial year.

TVS Motors’s sales fell marginally at 1,70,428 units. The company had sold 1,71,790 units in December the previous year.

Scooter sales, increased by 7.18 percent to 44,804 units in December 2011 from 41,804 units in the like period of the previous financial year. While three-wheeler sales went down by 26.46 percent to 2,523 units from 3,431 units in the year ago period.

The company’s exports rose 6.44 percent to 22,481 units.