Passenger car sales are forecast to grow 3-5 per cent in the ongoing fiscal on expectations of an improvement in overall macro-economic conditions, despite witnessing a fall of 6.69 per cent during 2012-13, industry body SIAM on Wednesday said.
SIAM also said total sales of all vehicles in the country during 2013-14 will grow by 6-8 per cent with contributions from almost all segments.
“There are concerns and uncertainties for the future, but there is also hope. In recent times, we have seen some positive policy decisions from the government. Macro-economic recovery is also expected,” SIAM President S Sandilya told reporters here.
Besides, he said a slew of new models are also expected that will “excite the market” and models with upgraded features may help the car segment to register better sales in this fiscal.
Pointing out that the buying pattern of customers are changing from small cars to bigger cars and utility vehicles, Sandilya said: “The utility vehicle (UV) sales will continue to increase at a good rate on account of new model launches by many players.”
According to its projections for 2013-14, passenger car segment is pegged to grow by 3-5 per cent, while the UV segment is likely to go up by 11-13 per cent.
“Overall, the passenger vehicle sales is estimated to rise by 5-7 per cent in this financial year,” he added.
In 2012-13, sales of passenger cars fell to 18,95,471 units from 20,31,306 units in the previous fiscal.