Two-wheeler sales too recovered, growing by over 13% to 17.9 million units in the year under review. However, overall volumes are still shy of the peak of 21 million units reported in FY19. Meanwhile, sales of commercial vehicles remained flat at 967,000 units last fiscal.
In March, the last month of the financial year, the cumulative sales of cars, sedans and utility vehicles was 368,086 units, up from 336,000 a year, as per data available with industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).
Vinod Aggarwal, President, SIAM said, “On the backdrop of a robust economic growth of 7.6% based on conducive policies of Government of India, the Indian Automobile Industry has posted a satisfactory performance with domestic industry growing by 12.5% during the last financial year. Passenger vehicle segment led the growth with overall sales touching almost 5-million units including 4.2 million domestic (growth of 8.4%) and 0.7 million exports. Two-wheeler segment continued the recovery path with a handsome growth of over 13% in domestic sales to almost 18 million units, even though still lower than the earlier peak of 21 million units in FY19.”
Sales of commercial vehicles in the local market increased by a modest 0.6% to 967,878 units in FY24. There was a decline in demand for light and small commercial vehicles, especially those which run of CNG. “The growth in commercial vehicles was also impacted due to migration to higher tonnage trucks which created higher payload capacity, that is not reflected in the number of units,” Aggarwal said. Sales of three-wheeler was almost close to the earlier peak of 0.7 million units reported in FY 19.
Overall, exports remained under stress during the last financial year with significant decline in shipments of commercial vehicles, two-wheelers and three-wheelers drop. Passenger vehicles exports grew marginally in the year under review. Aggarwal added, the industry saw good recovery last quarter, especially for two-wheelers, indicating better potential for the current year.