Passenger vehicle sales up 11% on festive season buys

Passenger vehicle sales in India grew by 11.32 per cent in September, riding on good growth in utility vehicles segment and festive season purchases. According to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) today, domestic passenger vehicle sales were at 3,09,955 units in September, as against 2,78,428 in the same month last year. "Automobile industry at the moment is looking at improvement in all segments from last year," SIAM President Abhay Firodia told reporters here. Overall vehicle sales across categories registered 10 per cent growth to 24,90,034 units, from 22,63,620 in September 2016. Although the auto industry has faced difficulties in the wake of demonetisation, transition from BS-III to BS-IV norms and uncertainty of GST implementation, it has recovered from those tough times, Firodia said. "Now it is on the mending path. We hope that this momentum will be maintained," he said. Car sales last month went up by 6.86 per cent to 2,08,656 units as against 1,95,259 units in September last year, while utility vehicle sales were up 26.21 per cent to 84,374 units as against 66,851 units.

The increase in PV sales in September was driven by festive season purchases, with SUV models like Maruti Suzuki's Brezza, Hyundai Creta, Mahindra Scorpio, Ford Ecosport and Honda W-RV witnessing good traction, said SIAM officials.

Market leader Maruti Suzuki India's PV sales were up 9.65 per cent at 1,50,521 units last moth, while that of rival Hyundai Motors India was at 50,028 units, up 17.42 per cent. Mahindra & Mahindra saw its PV sales grow by 23.32 per cent to 25,327 units while homegrown competitor Tata Motors clocked 19,334 units, up 18.24 per cent from September 2016.