Automobile industry crosses 10-mn-unit bar

Output of passenger cars grew by 18.59 per cent.

The automobile industry is operating at full throttle, with production crossing the 10-million-vehicle mark in the first 11 months of the calendar year.

Growing at an impressive 16.82 per cent over last year, the industry produced 10,031,886 vehicles till November this year, as against 8,587,131 in 2005.

The passenger segment, which constituted about 13.6 per cent of the total production, clocked 1,100,799 units, growing at 16.38 per cent. The production of passenger cars grew by 18.59 per cent, while that of multi-utility vehicles grew by 9.24 per cent.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), while revealing the production data, said it was just the beginning of the golden period of Indian automobile industry.

Dulep Chenoy, director general, SIAM said, "The increase in production is spurred by the huge demand from the market. The auto industry achieved the 10-million-unit feat a month before expectations and newer benchmarks are expected in the future as the real potential of the automotive market is discovered."

Transport experts said the vast improvement on the road infrastructure front, especially the steps taken under the Golden Quadrilateral project, had led to impressive growth in transport requirements and in the commercial vehicle (CV) segment in particular.

The production of goods carriers, including both heavy and light CVs, grew by nearly 30 per cent. Accounting for 4.4 per cent of the total CV output, 189,716 light CVs and 251,114 medium and heavy CVs were produced in the 11-month period.

The buoyancy in the economy, increasing purchasing power, and new product launches, coupled with attractive finance schemes from automobile manufacturers and financial institutions, were the main drivers for the industry.

Exports also contributed in a major way to this growth story. Witnessing growth of 11.26 per cent, 561,285 units of two-wheelers, 175,746 units of passenger vehicles, and 109,075 units of three-wheelers were exported by automobile manufacturers.

The vehicles were mainly exported to South America, Africa, South East Asia, Russia, and the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.