At 5% growth, auto sales hit speed-breaker in FY19

The previous fiscal was one of the toughest for Indian automobile manufactures. Not just cars, but sales of all passenger vehicles and two-wheelers were hurt by poor consumer sentiment and other factors such as mandatory insurance and high raw material prices.

In FY19, domestic car sales grew just 2 per cent to around 22.19 lakh units, against 21.74 lakh units in FY18, said a report by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Monday. In FY18, car sales had grown 3 per cent.

Overall passenger vehicle sales rose around 3 per cent to 33.77 lakh units in FY19 ( 32.89 lakh units in FY18). Impacting sales were a liquidity crunch, high vehicle prices and uncertainty around the forthcoming elections. In FY18, passenger vehicle sales had increased 8 per cent.

In the two-wheeler segment, sales rose 5 per cent to around 2.11 crore units (2.02 crore units). While motorcycle sales grew around 8 per cent, scooter sales saw a marginal decline.

Despite several product launches during the year, sales failed to rev up, especially from the second half of the year. This even prompted SIAM to lower its forecast for the financial year.

“In the year gone by, we faced many challenges, the biggest being high commodity prices which prompted companies to hike vehicle prices, impacting demand. Further, issues such as compulsory insurance and a liquidity crunch at funding companies impacted sales,” said SIAM President Rajan Wadhera.

However, the year did see some positives, and sales grew despite the hurdles, he pointed out.

Going forward, SIAM expects the market to bounce back with more launches and new emission regulations, which will lead to more sales of existing models.

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