The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) could downgrade this year's growth projections for the passenger vehicle (PV) segment in its quarterly review next month.
While overall auto sales in May have continued the modest 10 per cent growth of both March and April, a negative market sentiment amid rising petrol prices have led passenger vehicle sales to slow down to 7.5 per cent.
Car sales growth (PV includes cars, utility vehicles and vans) has, in fact, come down to below three per cent in the month.
“Petrol car demand is anyway down, and the diesel car demand is also slowing now. Just a few diesel models still have high waiting periods, such as the Maruti Swift, Hyundai Verna and the Mahindra XUV500,” said Mr Vishnu Mathur, Director-General of SIAM.
In April, the auto industry body had forecasted a 10-12 per cent growth in passenger vehicle sales for 2012-13 and a similar growth for the whole industry as well.
“There is an indication that petrol prices will come down. If that happens, growth should pick up,” Mr Mathur said. Additionally, the RBI is also expected to reduce key policy rates by about 25 basis points in its monetary policy review on June 18, giving a boost to financing-based purchases.
Market leader Maruti Suzuki's sales fell four per cent, led by a 29 per cent drop in sales for popular petrol compact models Alto, WagonR, A-Star.
Hyundai saw sales going up three per cent, even as it increased the discounts and schemes offered on petrol models such as the Santro and i10. Tata Motors' sales were up six per cent.
While commercial vehicle (CV) sales in May rose nine per cent (62,025 units) led by light CVs, medium and heavy CV sales were down 10.58 per cent. This has been attributed to a slowdown in infrastructure spending by the Government.
“Commercial vehicle buyers were expecting a reduction in excise duties on chassis during the Budget session (ended May 22). While in March it had been increased by five per cent, they later reduced it by one per cent,” Mr Mathur said.
Bike sales up 11%
Meanwhile, two-wheeler sales went up 11.40 per cent (11.92 lakh units). This was led by a 34 per cent growth in scooter sales as major players such as Honda and Hero increased output and buyers opted for fuel-efficient modes of transport.
Hero MotoCorp posted over five lakh sales – growth of 11 per cent, while Eestwhile partner, Honda Motorcycle, posted a strong 52 per cent growth.
Three-wheeler sales also came back to black in May with a 3.32 per cent rise (37,184 units), after being in the red for many months.