On the back of strong demand during the festival season, automobile sales touched a record high for the fourth time in a row in October, with the industry reporting sales of 14,60,655 units. The previous best was in September, when auto sales had zoomed to 13,29,086 units.
Overall vehicles sales in the domestic market during October grew by 45.9 per cent, compared to 10,00,953 units during the corresponding period last year. Vishnu Mathur, director general, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), said, “October demand was good due to the festival season. Basic fundamentals of the industry remain strong. Interest rates continue to be favourable despite a marginal increase.”
Launch of new models has also helped in increasing the excitement in the market and creating demand, he added. Demand was driven by record monthly sales achieved in passenger cars, motorcycles and the two-wheeler segments.
According to data available with Siam, domestic passenger car sales jumped by 38 per cent to 1,82,992 units during the month, against the 1,32,615 units in October 2009.
Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest car manufacturer, posted 44.8 per cent growth in domestic sales at 91,754 units, compared to October 2009. Hyundai Motor India had sales of 34,651 units, up 22.4 per cent from October last year.
Motorcycle sales went up by 43.3 per cent to 8,76,810 units from the earlier 6,11,828. The previous high of 7,78,352 units was achieved in September. While Hero Honda posted growth of 39.6 per cent at 4,64,271 units, Bajaj Auto sales went up by 34 per cent to 2,39,936 units.
The overall two-wheeler segment achieved record sales of 11,27,827 units in October, up 50.4 per cent to from 7,49,965 units in October 2009. The previous best was in September at 10,05,162 units.
Sales of commercial vehicles continued to show an uptrend with a growth of 18.2 per cent to 50,835 units, from 43,018 units in the year-ago period. Light commercial vehicle sales rose 22.7 per cent to 29,028 units from 23,653 units in October last year. Medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales surged by 12.6 per cent to 21,807 units compared to 19,365 units last year.
Mathur said if the sales growth persists, then Siam’s revised forecast of 18-20 per cent growth touching 2.4 million units in the passenger vehicles segment announced last month, could be achieved. The industry body had earlier projected about 13 per cent growth for the segment in 2010-11.
