India’s automobile companies started the new financial year on a strong note, with companies posting robust sales in April and predicting continuation of the trend. However, some industry executives said increasing fuel prices could pose challenges to growth.Maruti Suzuki, which reported a 13.4 per cent increase in sales at 163,434 vehicles in April, continued to drive the market. Though sales of mini cars Alto and WagonR declined 2.8 per cent and those of the utility vehicle portfolio comprising Ertiga, Brezza and S-Cross expanded just 0.8%, the compact section — Swift, Ignis, DZire, Tour S, Baleno and Celerio — posted a strong 31.8 per cent increase in sales. Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava said the market sentiment looked “strong”, but also flagged the fuel price risk.“The forecast for monsoons is good. People have got used to GST and whatever effect demonetisation had. The only adverse factor is rising fuel costs. Petrol and diesel prices are at an all-time high, which may affect demand to some extent,” he said.Maruti Suzuki expects its sales to grow in double digits this fiscal year. It plans to undertake measures to improve productivity at its manufacturing facilities in Haryana to meet demand. Parent Suzuki’s Gujarat facility will chip in with an additional 90,000 units in the year through March 2019.Korean rival Hyundai Motor posted 4.4 per cent growth in local sales at 46,735 units in April. Director for sales and marketing Rakesh Srivastava attributed the growth to the strong performance of the Grand i10, Elite i20, Verna and Creta. These vehicles comprised 79 per cent of the total sales volume for the company in India.Home-grown Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors registered 13 per cent (selling 21,927 units) and over 34 per cent (17,235 units) expansion, respectively, in the past month.“The new fiscal for our passenger vehicle business has started on a positive note,” said Mayank Pareek, Tata Motors’ president for the passenger vehicle business unit.“While there were challenges in the market, strong demand for new generation products like Tiago, Tigor, Nexon and Hexa led the growth in April 2018,” he said.Several industry insiders expect passenger vehicle sales to grow in strong single-digits this financial year.But Anurag Mehrotra, Ford India’s president and managing director, was cautious. “Increasing inflation trajectory which might weigh on customer’s access and cost to credit, coupled with increasing crude prices could lead to passenger vehicle industry growing at low single digits,” he said. The American automaker’s sales in the Indian market dropped 2.5 per cent in April to 7,428 units.Commercial vehicle sales reported strong growth last month, albeit on a low base — a Supreme Court ruling banning sale and registration of BS IIIcompliant vehicles beyond March 2017 had affected numbers a year earlier. Industry leader Tata Motors more than doubled volume to 36,276 units. Girish Wagh, its president for the commercial vehicle business unit, said: “Various macroeconomic factors, infrastructure growth, improved industrial activities and consumption-led demand contributed to the growing volumes.”At Mahindra, sales of commercial vehicles rose 26 per cent to 18,963 units. VE Commercial Vehicles sold 3,409 units, an increase of 31.6 per cent from a year earlier.Rajan Wadhera, president of the automotive sector at Mahindra, said: “The truck and bus division continues to outperform with a high y-o-y growth. Going forward, we are confident of this positive momentum continuing in Q1FY19”.Mahindra’s tractor sales in April rose to 29,884 units from 25,208 units a year earlier. “With the prediction of a normal monsoon, we expect positive sentiments to continue and boost tractor demand in the coming months,” said its farm equipment division head Rajesh Jejurikar.Two-wheeler maker TVS Motor registered growth of 21.7%, selling 293,418 units (domestic and exports) last month.