Domestic car sales grew by 13 per cent in December for the 14th consecutive month, but what is worrying the industry is the persistent decline in sales of motorcycles.
“The motorcycle industry is worried because it this segment that is pulling down the overall sales of two-wheelers,” Sugato Sen, Deputy Director General, SIAM, told reporters here on Monday. He added that “sentiments in rural and semi-urban areas are still not positive because of crop failure due to deficient rainfall”.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said the slowdown in the rural economy would continue to weigh upon motorcycles, which are primarily sold in rural areas.
According to the latest data released by SIAM, the passenger car industry recorded sales of 1.73 lakh units in December against 1.53 lakh units in the corresponding month last year. The record growth brought cheer to the industry.
“December is always a difficult month for us. But, this time, I think the inducement from car manufacturers in terms of discounts, to a large extent, helped in sales growth during the month,” Sen said.
The growth in the car segment has pushed the total growth in passenger vehicle sales to 2.31 lakh units during the month, against 2.09 lakh units in December 2014.
The commercial vehicles segment also grew by double digits (12 per cent) to 56,840 units in December compared with 50,999 units in the same month last year. Scooter sales rose by three per cent to 3.86 lakh units against over 3.74 lakh units in December 2014.
However, motorcycle sales saw a six per cent decline year-on-year (YoY) in December, at around 7.25 lakh units, against 7.70 lakh units in the same month last year.
This has led to a three per cent decline in total two-wheeler sales year-on-year to around 11.68 lakh units in December, compared with 12.05 lakh units in December 2014.
As a result, the grand total of sales of all vehicles put together also dropped marginally year-on-year due to the same reason, SIAM said.