Passenger vehicle, two- wheelers sales rise in September

India’s passenger vehicle and two-wheele is showing some signs of improvement for the second consecutive month in September, in a steady recovery from April when the pandemic-induced lockdowns severely depressed demand.The increase was helped by dealer stocking as automakers are hoping retail sales to accelerate further during the crucial festival months of October and November.

Wholesales or factory dispatches of passenger vehicles grew 26.5% from a year earlier to 272,027 in September, showed data issued by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) on Friday. Sustained demand for compact cars and smaller sport-utility vehicles in rural and semi-urban markets as well as some pockets of the urban market fuelled growth. Utility vehicle sales grew by 24.5% from a year earlier to 96,633 units in September thanks to increased dispatches by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Hyundai Motor India Ltd and Kia Motors India Ltd. Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor, the country’s top two carmakers, recorded 33.4% and 23.6% growth in sales in September at 150,040 units and 50,313 units, respectively.

Passenger cars also posted a robust sales performance, growing 28.9% to 163,981 units as more people chose affordable, small cars to avoid public transport amid fears of contracting an infection. In the two-wheeler segment, scooter sales were little changed at 5.56 million units from a year earlier, while motorcycle sales grew by 17.3% to 1.22 million units as demand for entry and executive segment motorcycles recovered in rural and semi-urban markets. Overall, two-wheeler sales jumped 11.6% to nearly 1.85 million units.

Motorcycle sales have picked up faster compared to the other segments due to quicker recovery in demand in the rural and semi-urban areas compared to the metro and tier-1 cities. A good summer crop, decent monsoon and comparatively slower spread of virus infection have aided the recovery in rural markets.