Auto sales clocked their first double digit monthly growth for the year, selling 14 percent more passenger vehicles (PV) in August -- from last year.
A strong pickup in retail demand and a low base were the main drivers.
Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) data shows that wholesale volumes (those bought by dealers) of PVs closed 215,916 units in August. The sales data does not have passenger vehicle numbers of Tata Motors since the company stopped sharing numbers since March-end.
Strong pulls from the rural pockets, a slight revival in urban markets, festive buying and easier finance schemes helped revive volumes during the month.
Two-wheeler, SUV sales
Utility vehicles, which SUVs are a part of, grew by 15 percent during August, commanding an unchanged share of 37 percent. Sales of passenger cars grew by 14 percent during the same month, holding a share of 58 percent. The remaining share is held by vans.
Two-wheeler sales during the same month grew by 3 percent to 1.55 million units, compared to the same month last year. About half of the two-wheeler sales, primarily budget motorcycles, depend on rural consumption.
Scooters are dependent on urban markets. As urban markets are yet to come out of the woods, the overall performance of two-wheelers remains below par.
Motorcycles continued to lead demand, with sales improving 10 percent to 9.37 lakh. Scooter demand declined yet again, falling by 12 percent to 4.56 lakh. Easy on pocket and low on power, mopeds outpaced the industry, recording a growth of 26 percent at 70,126 units.
CV sales figures not disclosed
Kenichi Ayukawa, President, SIAM, said: “We are beginning to observe growth, which is instilling confidence back into the industry, especially in the two-wheeler and the passenger vehicle segments. Even though the industry witnessed year-on-year growth in August 2020, it is to be recognised that the base figures in August 2019 itself was very low, as the industry had shown a fall of about 32 percent for PVs, and 22 percent for two-wheelers in 2019 over 2018.”
Sales of CVs were not shared by SIAM for August. Tata Motors, which is one of the top two CV makers in the country, has stopped sharing wholesale data even as its competition such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland and VE Commercial Vehicles share the data freely.
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