The Hindu Business Line : Passenger vehicle sales continue to lead growth

Passenger vehicles sales in November continued to grow at the fastest pace at 17.14 per cent, much ahead of other categories like commercial vehicles and two wheelers. According to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers here on Tuesday, Maruti Suzuki led the growth in the passenger vehicles by selling 57,554 units, a 27.37 per cent increase from November last year.

It was followed by Hyundai that sold 19,041 units, recording 15.46 per cent growth. General Motors too sold 3,653 units from 903 units last year, a phenomenal increase on the back of its sales of the newly launched Spark.

Auto industry watchers say that it has been mainly new launches that have been steering the growth in the segment. Maruti launched its SX4 in April this year and Hyundai, which was witnessing an almost flat or declining sales in the previous months, showed growth in the domestic market mainly due to its newly launched compact car i10.

The commercial vehicles category witnessed an increase in sales in light commercial vehicles led mainly by Tata Motor’s Ace. In contrast to this, sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles declined. Overall, the commercial vehicles segment found its sales almost flat at 40,466 units, marginally up from 40,313 units in the same period last year.

“On the ground, there seems to some traction in terms of volume for the commercial vehicles segment. This should lead to better growth in the coming months even for medium and heavy commercial vehicles. For two-wheelers also, last year around this time the volumes had started declining. So the base will get narrow, which will result in the companies posting lower decline from now on,” said Mr Amit Kasal, an auto analyst from Motilal Oswal.

Two-wheelers

For two wheeler manufacturers, the festive season of November offered some respite with sales reporting a slightly lower decline compared to what it had been over the previous months. Within the two wheelers segment, motorcycles sales declined to 5,40,553 units from 5,56,612 units, registering a drop of 2.88 per cent as compared to scooters that saw a marginal increase of 0.27 per cent at 89,078 units in the last month from 88,831 units in the same period last year.

“The decline in two wheelers’ sales is much lower than what it has been in the previous months. But last year there was no festive season in November. So it is difficult to compare it with the previous year,” said an auto analyst from B&K Securities India.

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