Passenger vehicle sales in India rise 14% in Dec: SIAM

NEW DELHI: Passenger vehicle wholesales in India increased 13.59% to 2,52,998 units last month on a very low sales base of December 2019, auto industry body SIAM said on Thursday.

Passenger vehicle sales in December 2019 stood at 2,22,728 units.

As per the latest data by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), twowheeler sales also rose 7.42% to 11,27,917 units, compared to 10,50,038 in December 2019.

Motorcycle sales increased 6.65% to 7,44,237 units as against 6,97,819 in December 2019. Scooter sales were also up 5.59 at 3,23,696 units from 3,06,550 units a year ago.

Commenting on the December sales, SIAM director general Rajesh Menon said the passenger vehicle and twowheeler segments witnessed an increase in sales last month over a very low base of December 2019.

In the October-december quarter this fiscal, passenger vehicle sales increased 14.44% to 8,97,908 units from 7,84,616 units in the year-ago period.

Two-wheeler sales during the December quarter rose 13.37% to 47,82,110 units as compared to 42,18,157 units in the same period a year earlier.

However, commercial vehicle sales saw a dip of 1.12% to 1,93,034 units in the quarter under review against 1,95,211 units in October-december 2019.

Vehicle sales across categories during the third quarter rose year-on-year by 10.61% to 59,44,991 units from 53,74,680 units.

Automobile exports from India declined 18.87% in 2020, a year marked by coronavirus pandemic induced disruptions across the globe, according to SIAM. Overseas shipments of vehicles in the January-december period last year stood at 38,65,138 units as against 47,63,960 units in the same period in 2019, SIAM said.

One of the main reasons for the drop in automobile exports was the dip in shipments of passenger vehicles, which were down 39.38% last year at 4,28,098 units as compared to 7,06,159 units in 2019.

Passenger cars exports dropped by 47.89% at 2,76,808 units last year as against 5,31,226 units exported in 2019.

Utility vehicles exports also dropped by 12.60% at 1,49,842 units as compared to 1,71,440 units in the previous year, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers .