Indian automakers produced 2,227,140 vehicles including passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three wheelers and two wheelers in September 2014, a rise of 22.45% over September 2013, but double digit growth was driven only by two wheelers.
According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) industry group, passenger vehicle sales grew 4.25% in the April-September 2014 fiscal first half over the same period last year. Within the segment, passenger cars and utility vehicles grew by 4.09% and 12.17% respectively, while vans declined 13.35%.
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Volume in the overall commercial vehicles segment declined 10.14% in the first half. Sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs) fell 1.22% and light commercial vehicles also dropped by 14.39%.
Overall automobile exports grew 19.99% over fiscal H1 2013. Passenger vehicles declined marginally 0.93%.
“While the stock inventory was high, not many customers came to buy new cars in September,” Vishnu Mathur, SIAM’s director-general, told ETAuto.com.
“We are hopeful that half a dozen festivals, including the all-important Diwali, (in October) will trigger demand and bring back sales into the positive territory.”
With the onset of the festival season, car sales were widely expected to rise in September as well and manufacturers had kept large inventories to meet the demand. But many potential customers delayed purchase decisions expecting higher discounts during October, industry executives were quoted as saying.
With several major festivals this month, with Diwali being the biggest when sales usually peak, the industry is hoping car sales to return to the positive territory again.
According to SIAM data, domestic passenger car sales fell 1.03% to 154,882 units in September. Overall passenger vehicle sales rose in the past month by 3.26%, helped by strong demand for utility vehicles, which saw volume growing almost 25%. Honda’s Mobilio multipurpose vehicle was one of the main drivers of this growth.
Car sales rose 3% in May this year after falling for two years, and then expanded by 15%, 5% and 15% in the following three months, which had led many to consider it as a definite sign of an uptrend, ETAuto noted.
Last month too, some of the big players in the market, such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor, Honda and Nissan Motor, posted impressive sales growth. But the industry was dragged by sluggish performance of the likes of General Motors, Ford , Renault, Volkswagen and Fiat.
Seven of the 17 carmakers operating in India posted lower sales in September.
