 "Passenger vehicles cruise to a record, small car sales skid 21% in Nov")
Even as sales of passenger vehicles (PVs) in the wholesale market in November (the Diwali month) grew, those of small passenger cars showed a decline of 21.5 per cent, the data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) showed.
Including Tata Motors’ wholesale numbers, PV sales come in at 334,130 units, a growth rate of 3.7 per cent.
Tata Motors does not give a break-up of its monthly sales and hence the segment-wise data for November does not include its breakup of cars and utility vehicles.
Rajesh Menon, director general, Siam, said: “Three-wheelers reported significant growth of 30.8 per cent compared to the previous year, posting sales of about 60,000 units in November, just below the peak of November 2017. Two-wheelers also reported sales of about 1.623 million units with high growth of 31.3 per cent compared to November 2022 and are also slightly below the peak in November 2018.”
PV growth was spurred by an increase in utility vehicles, which witnessed a nearly 27 per cent jump Y-o-Y to 175,278 units. The improved production resulting from better semiconductor availability, combined with festival season sales in the first 15 days of November, contributed to this.
Himanshu Singh, research analyst, Prabhudas Lilladher, had earlier said this month Y-o-Y growth for PV makers was slightly below expectations with strong outperformance by the sport utility vehicle segment continuing.
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“OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have likely reduced inventories, given wholesale growth was lower than retail. Production and, to some extent, wholesales (for sport utility vehicles) were impacted by a higher number of festival holidays during the month,” Singh added.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), market leader in the passenger car category in the domestic market, saw sales of its Alto and Espresso fall by 45 per cent to only 9,959 units. Sales of the Renault Kwid fell by almost 60 per cent to 610 units.
Wholesale refers to sales by the original equipment manufacturer to the dealer. Overall mini segment sales were down by 46 per cent.
In two-wheelers, there has been an overall growth rate of 31 per cent to more than 1.62 million units in November, led by the motorcycle segment. Industry insiders say election-bound states have done better in two-wheeler sales.
Motorcycles grew by almost 36 per cent in November as against 23 per cent growth in scooters.
Three-wheelers grew by 31 per cent to 59,738 units, driven primarily by the passenger carrier segment.
“For the month, sales of passenger vehicles grew moderately and two-wheelers and three-wheelers posted high double-digit growth. Sales of commercial vehicles matched last year’s levels. Supported by strong economic growth, industry is optimistic about ending the year 2023 on a high note and expects the trend to continue into 2024,” said Vinod Aggarwal, president, Siam.