Passenger car market leader MUL started the fiscal with a negative 89.2 per cent growth by exporting just 105 units in April compared to 979 units in the same month last year.

The cars and utility vehicles segment posted a 42.9 per cent decline in exports at 821 units during the month against 1,437 units in the same period last year, according to the data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).

Exports of Tata Engineering's utility vehicles dipped by 19.4 per cent to 300 units in April this year from 423 units in the same month a year ago.Indian arm of Korean auto major Daewoo Motors also started exporting its small car Matiz and sold 300 units in the global market during the first month of the fiscal 2000-01. Tata Engineering exported 34 units of its car `Indica' during the period.

Contrary to the performance of passenger car segment, two-wheeler industry posted impressive exports performance during April this year. Two-wheeler exports increased by 68.5 per cent to 8,716 units in April 2000 from 5,171 units in the same month last year.

Scooter exports rose by 110 per cent during the reference period to 2,480 units compared to 1,180 units while moped exports grew by 162 per cent at 3,512 units. However, motorcycles export growth rate was not that impressive as the segment clocked a growth of 2.7 per cent to 2,724 units only. Bajaj Auto, exported 693 scooters during the month against 115 units in April last, an increase of 502 per cent.

Exports of another scooter major LML Ltd went up by 274 per cent to 1,127 units from 301 units sold in the global market in April last.

However, Kinetic Motor suffered in its export commitments as it witnessed a 24.6 per cent drop in sales to 576 units. TVS Suzuki exported 84 units during the month compared to nil exports in the same month last year. In the motorcycles segment, Bajaj Auto took the lead by exporting 794 units in April 2000 compared to just 26 units in the same month last year, a growth of 30 times.