Car sales in India rose 6.06 per cent in August, the 10th consecutive month of growth as the auto industry continues its drive on a slow road to recovery partly driven by new model launches. However, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) a major concern is the declining sales of motorcycles, which saw a drop of 9.59 per cent in August due to demand slump in rural markets.
In August, domestic car sales stood at 1,63,093 units as against 1,53,781 units in the same month last year. "We are on a slow and steady but not a very explosive growth path. This is the 10th consecutive month of increase in car sales," SIAM Director General Vishnu Mathur told reporters here. New model launches such as Honda Jazz, Ford Aspire, Hyundai Creta and Maruti Suzuki's S-Cross partly helped in increasing the passenger vehicles numbers.
Mathur said that while the new launches did play a role in growth, there is a slow wider recovery taking place. "Out of the 17 players in passenger vehicles segment, 9 witnessed growth in August. Gradually growth may become even broad-based," he said, adding that a cut in interest rates could help boost demand. During the month, market leader Maruti Suzuki India posted a growth of 4.38 per cent in its domestic car sales at 86,454 units as against 82,823 units in the same month last year.
Rival Hyundai Motor India, saw its car sales decline by 1.8 per cent to 32,985 units as against 33,593 units in the year-ago month. Honda Cars India's sales stood at 14,691 units as against 11,166 units in the same month last year, up 31.56 per cent, SIAM said. Homegrown Tata Motors domestic car sales were at 9,814 units as compared with 8,249 units in the same month previous year, up 18.97 per cent.
Utility vehicles major Mahindra & Mahindra saw its sales decline by 4.34 per cent to 13,307 units as against 13,911 in August last year. According to SIAM, motorcycle sales declined to 8,23,053 units last month from 9,10,312 units a year ago. "Demand for motorcycle has suffered due to a slowdown in rural economy. It is a real area of concern as decline in motorcycle sales has brought down the overall vehicles sales," Mathur said. Vehicle sales across categories registered a decline of 2.07 per cent to 16,26,148 units from 16,60,512 units in August 2014, SIAM said.
