Passenger vehicle sales in India reached a new high for February last month amid better supplies and strong consumer demand, making it the fourteenth straight month of best monthly sales, data from industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) showed. Two-wheeler sales zoomed 35% on year, but fell short of the monthly record set in pre-Covid February 2020, which, too, was a leap year.
“Overall robust GDP growth of the country in the third quarter of FY24 has helped the auto sector…The industry expects the growth momentum to continue,” said Vinod Aggarwal, president of Siam.
As per data available with the society, 370,786 cars, sedans and utility vehicles were sold in the country last month, an increase of 10.8% over 334,790 units sold in February 2023.
This was the third highest monthly sales on record, behind 394,500 units sold in January 2024 and 391,811 units in October 2023.
Two-wheeler makers sold 1,520,761 units in the country last month compared to 1,129,661 units in February 2023, riding on a resurgence in demand particularly in rural markets.
Three-wheeler sales, too, increased 8.3% on year to 54,584 units in February, Siam data showed.
Sales of commercial vehicles, though, dipped last month due to cyclicity of demand, Aggarwal said.
Automakers in India mostly report wholesale dispatches from factories to dealerships and not retail sales to customers.
Carmakers expect the demand momentum to continue in the local market despite global uncertainties.
“The Indian market is resilient and should grow in low single-digits this year,” said Tarun Garg, chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor India (HMIL). “This is good given that we have had two years of record sales.”
Market leader Maruti Suzuki‘s senior executive officer (marketing and sales) Shashank Srivastava said, “This is the 14th straight month that monthly sales breached the best-ever mark. Demand continued to be strong for SUVs, which now account for a little over half of all passenger vehicles sold in the country.”
In the two-wheeler segment, the low base effect likely contributed to the faster pace of wholesale growth, said Himanshu K Singh, research analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher.
