The wholesale number of automobiles in the domestic market continued to fall in October, even though some of the segments grew marginally on a year-on-year (YoY) basis because of the festive season during the month.

In the total passenger vehicle sales, the numbers grew marginally to 2,85,027 units in October, as against 2,84,223 units in the corresponding month last year, led mostly by the utility vehicle (UV) segment that grew by more than 22 per cent YoY.

Sales of the UV segment grew to 1,00,725 units during the month as compared with 82,413 units in October 2018. The growth is mainly led by new launches like Kia Motor’s Seltos, MG Motor’s Hector, Hyundai Motor’s Venue, Mahindra & Mahindra’s XUV300, and some of the existing models like Maruti Suzuki’s Vitara Brezza.

However, in the passenger car segment, the sales fell 6 per cent YoY to 1,73,649 units during the month, as compared with 1,85,400 units in the same month last year, the latest report released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said on Monday.

In the two-wheeler segment also, the overall sales declined by more than 14 per cent to 17,57,264 units in October as against 20,53,497 units in the same month last year. While, the sales of motorcycle declined by 16 per cent YoY to 11,16,970 units in October as against 13,27,758 units in corresponding month last year, scooters sales fell by 10 per cent YoY to 5,80,130 units last month, as against 6,43,382 units in October 2018.

The sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles declined the most by 50 per cent YoY to 15,334 units, as against 30,752 units in October 2018. The total commercial vehicle sales also declined by 23 per cent to 66,773 units during last month as compared with 87,067 units in same month last year, the SIAM report said.

Therefore, because of fall in all other segments, except UVs and passenger carriers, the grand total of all categories declined by 13 per cent to 21,76,264 units in October, as compared to 24,94,345 units in October 2018.

However, SIAM is hopeful of better sales in November-December than last year and it is also expecting pre-buying to take off during the January-March period next year.

“Sales in the festive season have been better than the last year which is a good sign. We wish it continues in November and December as well and help us slowly come out of this slowdown,” Rajan Wadhera, President, SIAM said.

SIAM, that also shared Vahan Dahboad data said that the retail sales were up by around 8 per cent YoY to 18,16,440 units, compared to 16,82,995 units in October 2018, for the total categories of automobiles sales in India.

Vahan is the integrated solution for vehicle registration under the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways that takes care of all the burdensome activities of vehicle registration, leaving the Transport Department to deal with more important business issues.

According to it, the PV sales stood at 2,96,642 units last month, up 14 per cent as compared with 2,60,384 units in the same month last year. Similarly, two-wheeler retail sales were also up by 9 per cent at 13,88,538 units as against 12,74,988 units in October 2018.

Domestic sales performance during October 2019 (Source: SIAM)

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW