Economic slowdown has affected so much the auto industry that annual car sales declined for the first time in 11 years in 2013, posting a dip of 9.59 per cent.
As per Society of Indian Automobile Industry (SIAM) figures released on Thursday, domestic car sales last year fell to 18,07,011 units from 19,98,703 units in the previous year. “The decline in annual car sales that we witnessed in 2013 was the first time after 2002. The negative sentiments have deepened due to the current state of the economy. High inflation, fuel prices and interest rates - which resulted in high cost of ownership, have affected sentiment,” said SIAM Director General Vishnu Mathur.
Talking in detail about the performance of the passenger car sales Mathur said that out of 17 months only three months have witnessed positive sales — October 2012, August and September 2013. Mathur also said that industry hasn’t yet bottomed out, adding that other segments such as commercial vehicles are badly hurt due to lack of mining activities and stalled infrastructure projects.
“Some good policy decisions have been taken like JNURM, fast- tracking of infra projects and others because of which we expect some rebound happening in commercial vehicles in the second half of the year,” added Mathur. In the April-December 2013 period, the industry saw the launch of 22 new car models, 40 new variants and 10 model refreshes, intended to bring excitement in the market, he said.
In December, domestic car sales declined 4.52 per cent to 1,32,561 units from 1,38,835 units in the same month in 2012. Market leader Maruti Suzuki India posted a 6.4 per cent increase in domestic sales at 73,155 units as against 68,729 units in the same month of the previous year. Hyundai Motor India sales were also up 6.2 per cent at 28,320 units compared to 26,651 units in the year-ago month.
Tata Motors saw its sales crash by 41.92 per cent to 6,537 units in December from 11,257 units. Japanese car maker Honda posted a 29.27 per cent increase to 5,484 units as against 4,242 units. Utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra saw its sales drop by 26.93 per cent to 15,881 units from 21,735 units in December 2012.
According to data released by SIAM, motorcycle sales last month declined by 4.24 per cent to 8,08,281 units from 8,44,046 units a year earlier.Market leader Hero MotoCorp saw its sales down 3.88 per cent at 4,53,532 units. Rival Bajaj Auto also witnessed a decline of 31.66 per cent at 1,35,567 units last month. Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), however, saw its bike sales grow by 22 per cent to 1,15,537 units.
Total two-wheeler sales in December 2013 grew by 2.32 per cent to 11,63,465 units from 11,37,081 units in the same period of 2012.