Cars, two-wheelers help auto industry grow 6.81%

Riding on high single-digit growth in passenger vehicles and two-wheelers, the country’s auto majors sold a record 21.86 million vehicles in the domestic market in FY17.

This includes passenger vehicles (cars, utility vehicles and vans), two-wheelers (motorcycles, scooters and mopeds), commercial vehicles (light, medium and heavy) and three-wheelers. The industry’s growth (all segments combined) improved to 6.81 per cent, stronger than the 3.78 per cent reported in FY16.

The passenger vehicles segment reported the best growth at 9.23 per cent, selling a record three million vehicles, helped by new launches and a strong demand for utility vehicles introduced by Maruti Suzuki (Brezza) and Hyundai (Creta). Growth in March for the industry stood at 10 per cent when it sold 282,519 vehicles, data released by industry body Siam showed.

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Deputy Director Sugato Sen said the year witnessed the highest sales of passenger vehicles, utility vehicles, motorcycles and scooters. “In terms of passenger vehicles, we crossed the three million-mark for the first time.”

Sales of two-wheelers, the biggest category by volume, also surged 6.89 per cent in FY17, higher than the three per cent growth seen in FY16. Backed by a normal monsoon and increased wages of government employees, the industry was hoping to show double-digitgrowth. Demo net is at ion, however, slowed demand November onwards. Volumes still hit a record 17.58 million units, helped by double-digit growth in scooters.

Siam Director General Vishnu Mathur said the industry has been able to grow despite the challenges of a ban on diesel SUVs and cars in the National Capital Region and the note ban. “As for demonetisation, the impact was for only two months on the PV (passenger vehicles) segment and recovery was quick, but it was prolonged in the two-wheeler segment,” he said.

The commercial vehicle industry grew at about four per cent, lower than the overall automobile growth of 6.81 per cent. Medium and heavy commercial vehicles saw a flat performance and volumes stood at 302,529 units compared with 302,397 units in FY16. Light commercial vehicles had a better year and managed to post a growth of 7.4 per cent.