High interest rates and fuel prices leading to low consumer demand resulted in a drop in passenger car sales for the sixth consecutive month in April, and the steepest fall in 15 years.
Car sales fell 10.43 per cent in April, over the same month last year. In April 2002, sales had fallen by 22.82 per cent.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Deputy Director-General, Sugato Sen, said on Friday: “However, it (the declining trend) is bottoming out and, with fuel prices (petrol) coming down, we expect sales of passenger cars to grow in the next three months.
We expect an additional cut of Rs 2 in petrol price in the near future.”
Across all categories — two-wheelers, commercial vehicles, four-wheelers — sales dipped by 0.34 per cent in April to 14.67 lakh units (14.72 lakh units in April last year), the industry body said.
Domestic car sales were recorded at 1.50 lakh units in April (1.68 lakh units). Total passenger vehicle (including utility vehicles) sales were also down 8.21 per cent to 2.08 lakh units year on year.
Two-wheelers
In the two-wheeler segment, while motorcycle sales dropped 2 per cent, scooter sales were up around 15 per cent during the month against April 2012, SIAM data said.
Sales of 8.43 lakh motorcycles were recorded this April (8.61 lakh units). Scooter sales stood at 2.61 lakh units (2.27 lakh units).
In the three-wheeler segment, the industry sold 34,348 units during April, up 7 per cent against 32,044 units in the same month last year. Similarly, total sales of commercial vehicles grew by 0.75 per cent to 56,678 units (56,257 units).
The medium and heavy commercial vehicles category still remains a concern with sales dropping almost 7 per cent to 18,610 units (19,937 units).