Passenger car sales to cross two-million milestone in first half of 2023

Sales of passenger cars in India are set to cross the two-million mark in the first half of 2023 for the first time, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET).

India, Asia's third-largest economy, records half-yearly car dispatch volumes, which is equivalent to full-year sales in countries such as Mexico, Australia, and Indonesia.

Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer, of marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki India, said that car sales in June will be around 325,000 to 328,000 units, which is a growth of 2.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) over last year’s volume of 321,000.

Srivastava said, “We expect the industry to end the June quarter at around 996,000 units. The fourth quarter of FY23 saw dispatches of 1,017,000 units. Both combined means the industry would breach the two-million mark in the first half of any year for the first time.”

 

If the pace of growth in dispatches sustains through the second half, India could become the third-largest car market in the world in 2023.

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Domestic passenger car sales are expected to touch seven million units by 2030, estimates by leading car makers showed, according to the ET report.

Hardeep Singh Brar, national head of sales and marketing, Kia India, said, “The industry outlook remains positive in the long term. But (growth) is likely to be lower than 10 per cent in the second half due to the high base of last year.”

It took over 12 years for the car market in India to double its sales volumes and reach the current levels. It took merely five years to reach one million in June 2010. But disruptions due to Covid-19 and mobility curbs caused volume slippages.

Car sales (in unit terms) in India grew by 4.18 per cent in the last decade. For the first time ever, in all months of the calendar year 2023, car dispatches are likely to be in excess of 300,000 units.

Puneet Gupta, director, S&P Global Automotive, said “it’s not the time to get carried away”.

Gupta said, “It’s soon going to be a buyers’ market. With easy availability and tepid demand, we see consumer schemes gradually making a comeback for such models.”