 "17% dip in April: Passenger vehicle sales drop most in seven and half years")
Passenger vehicle sales in India dropped 17 per cent in April - their worst monthly fall in nearly eight years, data from an industry body showed on Monday, as weak sentiment, high insurance costs and a liquidity crunch dented car sales.
Sales of passenger vehicles dived to 247,541 in April versus 298,504 a year earlier, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers showed. Two-wheeler sales dropped 16.4 per cent to about 1.6 million vehicles.
Motorcycle sales last month declined 11.81 per cent to 10,84,811 units as against 12,30,046 units a year earlier.
Total two-wheeler sales in April declined 16.36 per cent to 16,38,388 units compared to 19,58,761 units in the year-ago month.
Sales of commercial vehicles were down 5.98 per cent to 68,680 units in April, SIAM said.
Vehicle sales across categories registered a decline of 15.93 per cent to 20,01,096 units from 23,80,294 units in April 2018, it added.
Last month, the country's biggest automaker Maruti Suzuki Ltd said it sold 458,479 vehicles in the three months ended March 31, down 0.7 percent on-year, and forecast a weak rate of growth for the current fiscal year.
Vishnu Mathur, director general, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, said some kind of recovery in sales will come only after the general elections are over as consumers resume thinking on discretionary spends.