Vehicle sales rise 23% in February on overall economic recovery

New Delhi: On the back of demand revival in rural and semi-urban markets and recovery in the overall economy, total vehicle sales in February rose at a brisk pace of 22.7% year-on-year (y-o-y), according to the data released by the Society of Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).

The total passenger vehicle sales grew by 7.7% y-o-y to 275,329 units as result of 21.82% y-o-y growth in utility vehicle sales to 80,254 units . Most of the growth in the segment was driven by compact utility vehicles like the Vitara Brezza, Nexon and Creta.

Passenger car sales also grew by 3.70% to 179,122 units during the month after declining for the last two months.

Due to the implementation of the overloading norms and government’s push for building infrastructure, medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales increased by 23.04% y-o-y to 37,552 units.

“The demand for commercial vehicles in this fiscal year has been very strong and we expect the same in the next fiscal as well since there will be a lot of spending on infrastructure by the government,” said Sugato Sen, deputy director general, Siam.

The light commercial vehicles also reported a whopping 37.9% y-o-y growth in sales during the month.

Indicating towards a strong revival in the rural economy motorcycle sales increased by 26.4% y-o-y to 1,053,230 units during the month, while scooter sales continued to report double digit growth of 23.9% y-o-y to 560,653 units.

“We are optimistic that two-wheeler sales in the current fiscal will be more than our projection due to the demand recover in the rural market which has helped increase motorcycles sales,” said Sugato Sen, deputy director general, Siam.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.