June auto sales jump 16% to 1.32 million vehicles

A low base of last year and pent-up demand resulted in an increase of nearly 16 percent in automotive sales during June, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the apex auto body, has said.

Total sales of passenger vehicles (PV), two and three-wheelers and quadricycle rose to 1.32 million units during the month against 1.14 million units sold in the same month last year in the domestic market.

“There is a significant increase in commodity prices, there is a global shortage in semiconductor and there is the fear of third COVID-19 wave. Which such uncertainty it is difficult to predict the future. The industry is working on whatever is in its control,” Kenichi Ayukawa, President, SIAM said.

The June sales data cannot be ideally compared with the year-ago period as on both occasions there were production-related disruption and lockdown. In June 2020, production was hit as there was only a partial resumption of supplies, while in June 2021, more than 20 states announced lockdowns.

As per SIAM data, PV volumes more than doubled to 255,743 units during the reporting month while two-wheeler volumes grew 4 percent to 1.05 million units. Three-wheelers continued to struggle, reporting a fall of 10 percent in June.

Passenger car sales grew to 121,378 units, while utility vehicles sales jumped to 100,760 units, both more than doubled when compared to June 2020.

Scooters volumes ended June 2021 lower with sales of 241,689 units, a fall of 10 percent from the year-ago period. Motorcycle volumes grew to 7771,00 units, an increase of 10 percent.

The above figures largely represent wholesale volumes (with the exception of Tata Motors), which is vehciles sold by manufacturers to their dealers. Retail volumes during June grew 23 percent to 1.21 million units. Retails sales are those which are actually bought by customers.

Despite petrol crossing the century Rs 100 a litre mark in most Indian cities, demand for PVs stays robust. There was no immediate impact on the fuel price hike on demand, SIAM said.

“The fuel price going up we will get a negative impact. We are expecting the fuel prices to come down to a reasonable level. We have to watch the demand because people will be hesitating the use their vehicles. We cannot say how much impact will it have on demand,” Ayukawa said.