Spurred by festive demand, auto makers continued to attract sales with special editions and new variants as a result domestic passenger vehicles’ (PV) sales grew at 19.92 per cent in September, touching highest volumes in over four-and-a-half years on the back of record sales in the utility vehicles segment.
As per the data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), PV sales in September stood at 2,78,428 units compared to 2,32,170 units in the same month last year while PVs in March 2012 had seen the sale of 2,95,403 units, showing year-on-year growth of about 22 per cent.
Utility vehicle sales last month saw 37.93 per cent jump to 66,851 units, from 48,467 units a year ago. Car sales, on the other hand, grew by 15.14 per cent to 1,95,259 units as against 1,69,590 units.
“The passenger vehicle numbers represent build-up of inventories for the festive season. Besides, various car makers have been able to sort out capacity issues leading to supply of certain models which are in high demand,” SIAM Deputy Director General Sugato Sen told reporters here.
Buoyed by the sustained performance, SIAM expects growth in the PV segment in the current fiscal to be in the 10-13 per cent range.
“The industry is geared up for the festive season. We expect it to be better than previous years,” SIAM said Director General Vishnu Mathur.