text: Passenger car sales see 9.48% growth in September, says Siam - The Financial Express ​
  Passenger car sales see 9.48% growth in September, says Siam
  Passenger vehicle sales continued to increase in the domestic market as the segment grew by the 3.84% y-o-y to 232,167 units in September
  By: FE Bureau | Updated: March 21, 2016 11:48 AM
  Passenger vehicle sales continued to increase in the domestic market as the segment grew by the 3.84% y-o-y to 232,167 units in September (Reuters)
  Passenger vehicle sales continued to increase in the domestic market as the segment grew by the 3.84% y-o-y to 232,167 units in September on the back of strong performance from the recently launched vehicles and increase in demand for vehicles in south and west India due to festivals like Pongal and Ganesh Puja, data from Soceity of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) showed.
  Passenger car volumes increased by 9.48% y-o-y to 169,590 vehicles on the back of good performance by market leader Maruti Suzuki, and second largest car maker Hyundai. Most of the growth for Maruti was driven by Celerio, Swift Dzire, Swift and the recently launched hybrid diesel variant Ciaz.
  Maruti's volumes in the domestic market increased by 6.8% y-o-y to 106,083 units in September. Koean car manufacturer Hyundai also posted good set of number riding high on the back of the newly launched sports utility vehicle Creta and popular premium hatch back Elite i20.
  Though Creta has received positive response from the customers in the domestic market, the SUV segment in September declined by 8.56% y-o-y to 48464 units due to slowdown in the rural markets. Market leader Mahindra and Mahindra's volumes decreased by 7% y-o-y to 19,564 units from a year ago period in the domestic market.
  "While the auto industry has seen slow and fragmented recovery the recent rate cut by RBI is bound to infuse optimism. TUV300 which was launched in September is expected to boost sales in the future," said Pravin Shah, president, automotive division, M&M.
  Rural sales continue to adversely impact motorcycle sales as volumes in September decreased by 2.87% y-o-y to 10,20,237 units. On the other hand scooters continued to perform well in the urban corners of the market as volumes increased by 6.54% y-o-y to 462341 units in September.
  "The increase in September 2015 passenger car sales is mainly driven by new launches especially compact SUV, hatchback etc. Heavy and medium commercial vehicles sales continued their growth trajectory in anticipation of pick-up in Indian economy as well as pent-up demand. Motorcycles, utility vehicles and LCVs continued to struggle due to low off take especially in the rural market," said Abdul Majeed, partner, PriceWaterhouse Coopers
  Heavy and medium commercial vehicles continued to perform well in the domestic market on the back of improved cargo from the manufacturing and infrastructure sector before the festive season. The MHCV volumes increased by a whopping 63.76% y-o-y to 31,172 units and Tata motors and Ashok Leyland land has been the prime beneficiary of this growth.