Mini, compact cars drive 15% growth in sales in April: SIAM

Car sales in April grew by a good 14.68% as passenger vehicle sales grew to 2,77,602 units during the month this year from 2,42,060 units sold in April 2016, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

SIAM's Deputy Director General, Sugato Sen said that India’s April local car sales driven by mini, compact segments.

Buoyed by good economic activity picking up after demonetisation and hopes of a normal monsoon had resulted in the high growth in car sales.

However, commercial vehicle (CV) sales continued to struggle as it posted a 22.9% decline in sales during the month. It sold only 41,490 units during the month from 53,835 units sold in April 2016. This decline was primarily due to impact of the ban on the sale of Bharat Stage-III (BS-III) emission norm vehicles post April 1 passed by the Supreme Court on March 29.

Two-wheeler sales, on the other hand, went up by 7.34% to 16,74,796 units in April this year from 15,60,308 units in the same month last year. This was driven by demand for scooters. While sales of scooters increased by 25.3% to 5,86,886 units in April, motorcycle sales remained flat at 10,29,972 units.

This growth however comes as good news for two-wheeler companies which have been suffering for a long time since demonetisation. Two-wheeler sales saw a marginal growth of 0.3% to sell 14.7 lakh units in March. This was despite the heavy discounting after the BS III vehicle ban by the Supreme Court on March 29 which was expected to lead to large sales.

Sen says he sees no impact on vehicle sales from Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation.

After-effects of India’s demonetization move impacting commercial vehicle sales, said Sen. He said that the new, refurbished models, Maruti’s Gujarat unit boosted April car sales.

Further, SIAM's Executive Director, KK Gandhi said that the Indian auto industry will spend Rs 1 trillion for migration to BS-VI norms.