Calendar year 2013 proved to be a bad one for the Indian car industry, with sales falling 10 per cent to 18.07 lakh units.
This is the first time in 11 years — in 2002, car sales fell 3 per cent — that the industry has faced an annual decline in sales, said auto industry association Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), on Thursday.
“Negative sentiments have deepened due to the current state of the economy. High inflation, rising fuel prices and interest rates have resulted in high cost of ownership, which impacted consumer sentiment,” said Vishnu Mathur, Director-General, SIAM.
He said car sales grew only in three months during the last 17 months — in October 2012, and in August and September 2013.
Commercial-vehicle sales have been hit by the lack of mining activity and stalled infrastructure projects. “We expect some rebound in commercial vehicles in the second half of the year,” said Mathur.
According to SIAM data, total sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) declined 29 per cent to 2.15 lakh units in 2013.
Three-wheeler sales fell 6 per cent to 5 lakh units.
The only segment that grew during the year was two-wheelers, where sales increased 4 per cent. Scooters led the way, with sales rising 16 per cent to 33.56 lakh units in 2013. Motorcycles sales inched up 1.4 per cent to 1.02 crore units.
Dismal December On a year-on-year basis, in December, total sales across all categories declined 1.2 per cent to 1.43 crore units.
While passenger car sales dropped 4.5 per cent to 1.32 lakh units during the month, sales of M&HCVs declined 28 per cent to 13,770 units.
Two-wheeler sales grew 2.3 per cent to 11.63 lakh units in December.