October was one of the worst months for automobile companies as festival spends were not large enough to translate into higher vehicle sales.
For the medium and heavy vehicles segment, sales in October dropped for the 20th consecutive month.
Positive Volumes
There was a silver lining. The overall numbers were positive for the sector, in terms of absolute volumes, thanks to a record sales by the two-wheeler segment.
Two-wheeler sales grew 18 per cent to 1.5 million units against 1.28 million units in October last year.
This lifted the grand total of all categories to 18.58 lakh units during the month (a 13 per cent increase) against 16.51 lakh units in the same month last year.
According to data released by auto industry lobby Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic car sales dropped 4 per cent to 163,000 lakh units in October compared with 169,000 units during the same month last year. Total sales of commercial vehicles declined 20 per cent to 53,533 units during the month from 66,722 units in the same period a year ago.
Three-wheeler sales also declined 10.52 per cent to 49,425 units in October (55,237 units).
“This was the worst month of this fiscal in terms of sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs), passenger cars and light commercial vehicles,” said Vishnu Mathur, Director-General, SIAM, speaking to reporters here.
Govt package
“However, sales of two-wheelers and utility vehicles were good in October (because of new launches, such as the Ford EcoSport and Nissan Terrano),” he added.
Apart from poor consumer sentiment due to the deteriorating economic situation (inflation, high interest rates and soaring fuel prices), Mathur said that the Government not coming to the industry’s rescue with a stimulus package also affected the sector’s performance.
On a positive note, Mathur said that though the numbers of cars sold is negative, things are moderating from earlier months.