Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai shine as car sales hit record high

Growing craze for utility vehicles and higher demand from small towns and cities has helped the auto industry record its highest ever passenger vehicle sales at 3.3 million units in the last financial year. Utility vehicles sales have been one of the biggest factors which has contributed towards the growth of passenger vehicles in India and accounted for 28% of total passenger vehicle sales in 2017-18, against 25% a year ago, shows data from Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM).

Small towns and cities have emerged as new growth destinations for car makers while top 20 cities, contributing to about 50% of the passenger vehicle sales, have shown slow growth over last three to four years, SIAM director general Vishnu Mathur. Domestic passenger vehicles sales grew 7.89% to over 3.3 million during 2017-18, besting the previous record of sales of over 3.04 million units in 2016-17, according to data released by SIAM on Tuesday.

Domestic car sales stood at 21,73,950 units last fiscal at a growth rate of 3.3% compared to 21,03,847 units in the previous year.

Utility vehicles recorded sales at 9,21,780 units last fiscal at a growth rate of 20.97%.                       

Across all categories, vehicle sales grew 14.22% at 2,49,72,788 units in 2017-18 as against 2,18,63,281 units a year ago. However, exports of passenger vehicles were down 1.51% at 7,47,287 units as against 7,58,727 units in 2016-17.

During last fiscal, market leader Maruti Suzuki India sold 16,43,467 units of passenger vehicles, up 13.84% while Hyundai Motor India sold 5,36,241 units, up 5.21%.

Last fiscal also saw maximum two-wheeler sales at 20.2 million, while production for the same was also a record at 23 million. Total two-wheeler sales in FY18 stood at 2,01,92,672 units as against 1,75,89,738 units a year ago, up 14.8%, SIAM said.

Passenger vehicle production crossed four-million mark, with utility vehicle production crossing one-million mark. Commercial vehicle sales grew nearly 20%, with sales of light commercial vehicles up 25.42% and medium and heavy commercial vehicles rising 12.48%.

“Policy environment has been unstable in the last one year and despite those challenges, the auto industry has grown. In the last fiscal, the industry had to endure the lingering effects of demonetisation, impacts of transition from BS-III emission norms to BS-IV across India and implementation of GST (goods and services tax),” Mathur said.

Source: DNA Money