Auto sales rise fastest in 10 years

New Delhi: India’s passenger vehicle sales witnessed fastest monthly growth in nearly ten years in June expanding by 37.54 per cent.

The fast growth was helped by a low base last year when customers postponed purchases expecting price cuts after GST roll out.

The domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales rose to 2,73,759 units last month from 1,99,036 units in June last year, according to  the Society of Indian Auto-mobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

The previous fastest growth witnessed by the PV segment was in December 2009 when it grew by 50 per cent. Domestic car sales were up 34.21 per cent to 1,83,885 units as against 1,37,012 units in June 2017, SIAM said.

“People postponed purchases last year during this period as they expected prices to come down following the rollout of GST. So, the growth we are witnessing this year is coming on a low base of last year,” SIAM director general Vishnu Mathur said.

Sales of utility vehicles, cars and vans grew by 47.11 per cent, 34.21 per cent and 35.64 per cent, respectively, during last month, he added.

For the first quarter (April-June period) of the current fiscal, PV sales rose by 19.91 per cent to 8,73,501 units as compared with 7,28,483 units in same period of last fiscal.

“The overall growth trend continues and I see more reasons for it to continue. Timely onset of monsoon will be one of the primary reasons for that hope apart from the festival season and a series of new introductions. While on a sequential basis, the PV segment has shown a dip compared to May 2018, the YoY numbers have shown a significant jump mainly because of the pre-GST dip in June 2017,” said Sridhar V., partner, Grant Thornton India.

“Commercial vehicles appear to be on a dream run  and have continued to report a healthy growth.  This is a good reason to believe that the sector has more to come, while the fuel price and forex volatility along with a slight increase in interest rate is expected to have minimal impact,” he added.