Passenger Vehicle, Cars Sales Drop As Festive Cheer Fades
Sales of trucks and buses bucked the trend, rising 6.4% year-on-year.
Total vehicle sales fell in October as dealers held back on adding to their inventory as festive sales in the previous month were not as robust as expected.
Domestic passenger vehicle sales declined marginally to 2,79,837 units in last month from 2,80,677 units in October 2016, according to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers today.
Dealers had built up their stock in September anticipating higher sales as the festive season kicked in early, Vishnu Mathur, Director General of SIAM told BloombergQuint. But sales, at the retail level, fell short of expectations and dealerships bought vehicles in October to compensate for the stock buildup, he added.
In the passenger vehicle segment, Maruti Suzuki India posted a growth of 9.3 percent at 1.35 lakh units, but that of Hyundai Motor India was down 0.86 percent at 49,588 units.
Mahindra & Mahindra sales fell 5.35 percent at 23,413 units while homegrown rival Tata Motors saw a growth of 3.22 percent at 18,314 units in October this year.
Sales of total commercial vehicles, however, rose by 6.44 percent to 69,793 units in October, SIAM said.
Two-Wheeler Segment
Total two-wheeler sales also dropped in October by 2.76 percent to 17.5 units compared to 18 lakh units in the year-ago month. This is the first decline in the segment since February this year.
Motorcycle sales last month also declined by 3.50 per cent to 11.04 lakh units compared to 11.44 lakh units in October 2016.
- Market leader Hero MotoCorp posted domestic sales of 5.4 lakh units as against 5.6 lakh units in the year-ago month, down 3.72 percent.
- Rival Bajaj Auto saw its bike sales dropping marginally to 2.11 lakh units as against 2.12 lakh units in the same month last year.
- Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) also saw its sales dropping by 13.7 percent to 1.44 lakh units as against 1.67 lakh units in October 2016.
In the scooters segment, total sales fell 0.53 percent to 5.7 lakh units.
- Segment leader HMSI’s sales declined 3.2 percent to 2.93 lakh units
- TVS Motor sales jumped 17.32 percent to 1.03 units
- Hero MotoCorp’s scooter sales fell 9.3 percent to 80,535 units
(With PTI inputs)