Passenger Vehicle Sales Decline By 24%, Commercial By 62%: Siam

New Delhi, October 11:  With the beginning of the festive season, the sales of vehicles have shown little improvement but the trouble of automobile industry is not over, at least data suggests so.  The sale of passenger vehicles slumped 23.7 per cent year-on-year in September to 2,23,317 units, while passenger car sales dived 33.4 per cent to 131,281 units making it the 11th straight month of decline. In the year-ago period, passenger vehicle sales stood at 2,92,660 units.

As the automobile industry is facing one of the worst crisis ever, with the sale of vehicles reduced manifolds in the past few months.

The overall commercial vehicles segment registered a decline of 22.95 per cent in April-September 2019 as compared to the same period last year. medium & heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs) declined by 35.79 per cent and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) declined by 14.69 per cent in April-September 2019 over the same period last year according to data from the Society of Indian Manufacturers (Siam)

In order to beat the crisis several auto companies declared non-working days. This includes auto majors such as Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors among others. This is being done to reduce production of vehicles in the factories.

Three wheeler sales declined by 6.66 per cent in April-September 2019 in comparison to the same period last year.  As a result of the sharp decline in activity in manufacturing and infrastructure sector, sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles fell the most, down by 62.1 per cent year-on-year to 14855 units. Consequently, total commercial vehicle sales fell 39 per cent to 58,419 units.

Now with Diwali just around the corner, many automobile manufacturers are optimistic that the sales will pick up and the situation will improve during Dhanteras, when maximum sale takes place. 

However, the fact remains, automobile exports during April-September 2019 have shown substantial improvement exports grew by 1.29 per cent where passenger vehicles and two wheeler exports grew by 4.38 per cent and 4.10 per cent respectively.