Passenger vehicle sales slide for first time in 9 months

New Delhi: Passenger vehicle sales in India declined for the first time in nine months, on account of high base last year when sales had spiked due to the GST rollout across the country.

According to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales declined to 2,90,960 units last month from 2,99,066 units in July last year.

Domestic car sales also declined marginally to 1,91,979 units compared to 1,92,845 in July 2017.

"Last year in July, PV sales had shot up due to GST roll out. So, despite this drop in sales last month we are satisfied with the situation as we believe that all the industry segments are on a growth path," SIAM Deputy Director General Sugato Sen told reporters here.

PV sales had last dropped marginally in October last last year.

Goods and services tax (GST) was launched on July 1, 2017. The new indirect tax regime subsumed over a dozen local taxes.

Sen said that 10 million vehicles were produced in the country in the April-July period of the current fiscal, a 17 per cent growth over 9.3 million units manufactured in the same period of last fiscal.

"After few years of down turn, all segments of the industry are now showing growth and we expect it to continue over the next two years," he added.

The high sales base in August and September last year is also expected to reflect negative growth this year in these two months, Sen said.

In July, market leader Maruti Suzuki India reported a marginal decline in its domestic PV sales at 1,52,427 units. Rival Hyundai Motor India saw a growth of 1.1 per cent at 43,481 units.

Honda Cars India, which moved on to the third position, registered a growth of 16.89 per cent at 19,970 units. Homegrown Mahindra & Mahindra registered a decline of 5.83 per cent at 19,739 units, while Tata Motors saw its PV sales jump 15.58 per cent to 19,410 units.

According to SIAM, total two-wheeler sales in July rose 8.17 per cent to 18,17,077 units compared to 16,79,876 units in the year-ago month.

Motorcycle sales last month, however, rose 9.67 per cent to 11,50,995 units as against 10,49,478 units a year earlier.

Market leader Hero MotoCorp posted a rise of 12.18 per cent in its domestic motorcycle sales at 6,10,197 units as against 5,43,938 units in the year-ago month.

Rival Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) sold 1,62,987 units as compared to 1,68,075 units in the same month last year, a decline of 3.02 per cent.

Bajaj Auto's motorcycle sales stood at 2,01,433 units compared to 1,64,915 units in July 2017, up 22.14 per cent.

Scooter sales witnessed a rise of 5.12 per cent to 5,98,976 units, as compared to 5,69,809 units in July last year.

Market leader HMSI saw its domestic sales rise marginally to 3,45,602 units as against 3,43,885 units in the year-ago month.

Chennai-based TVS Motors sold 1,12,238 units as compared to 89,646 units in July last year, up 25.2 per cent.

Hero MotoCorp's scooter sales stood at 53,086 units as compared to 67,369 units in the year-ago month, down 21.2 per cent. Sales of commercial vehicles were up 29.65 per cent to 76,497 units in July, SIAM said. Vehicle sales across categories registered a rise of 7.97 per cent to 22,44,875 units from 20,79,204 units in July 2017, it added.