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The festive season could not lift the spirit of vehicle buyers in October, with the month being one of the worst for the automobile companies.
For the medium and heavy vehicles, October was the 20th month of negative growth.
“This was the worst month during this fiscal year in terms of sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs), passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. However, sales of two-wheelers and utility vehicles (because of new launches such as Ford EcoSport and Nissan Terrano) were good in October,” Vishnu Mathur, Director-General, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), told reporters here.
He also said that though the numbers of passenger cars are negative, the figures are moderating compared to earlier months this year.
Record two-wheeler sales
Historically, October also made a record as highest selling two-wheelers month, which made the grand total (of all categories) positive in terms of volume sales, Mathur said.
According to the data released by the auto industry body, domestic sales of passenger cars dropped by four per cent to 1.63 lakh units during October compared with 1.69 lakh units during the same month last year.
Similarly, total commercial vehicles’ sales 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).
However, sales of two-wheelers grew 18 per cent to 15.16 lakh units last month against 12.85 lakh units in October last year.
This has lifted the grand total of all categories’ numbers to 18.58 lakh units in October (up 13 per cent) against 16.51 lakh units in the same month last year.
ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in
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