in 2021 china continued to lead the global auto market with 2627 million vehicles sold the us remained second at 154 million vehicles followed by japan at 444 million unitsaccording to the most recent industry figures india overtook japan in terms of auto sales last year moving it to third place for the first timeaccording to early figures india outsold japan with at least 425 million new car sales surpassing that countrys 42 million salesbetween january and november 2022 413 million new cars were delivered in india according to the society of indian automobile manufacturers the number rises to almost 425 million units when the sales figure for december which maruti suzuki the largest automaker in india reported on sunday is added advt with the inclusion of upcoming commercial vehicle fourthquarter sales data and upcoming yearend numbers from tata motors and other manufacturers the volume of sales in india is predicted to increase even morein 2021 china continued to lead the global auto market with 2627 million vehicles sold the us remained second at 154 million vehicles followed by japan at 444 million unitsthe auto industry in india has experienced recent fluctuations in 2019 volume fell to below 4 million units from the about 44 million units sold in 2018 partly because of the credit crunch that impacted the nonbank sector that yearvehicle sales fell even lower than the 3 millionunit threshold in 2020 when the covid pandemic prompted a nationwide lockdown sales bounced back in 2021 to close to 4 million units although growth was hampered by the lack of automotive chipsin india last year gasolinepowered vehicles including hybrids made up the majority of new car sales there are hardly any electric cars on the road automobiles marketed for the indian market are thought to include fewer semiconductors than those bought in developed nationsin 2022 the automotive chip crisis began to ease which served as a launchpad for a comeback tata motors and other indian automakers saw an increase in sales last year along with maruti suzuki advt india is home to 14 billion people and its population is expected to outstrip china sometime this year and continue growing until the early 2060s incomes are rising as wellaccording to british research company euromonitor only 85 of indian households possessed a passenger vehicle in 2021 leaving lots of space for sales development in response to a trade deficit brought on by imports of petroleum the government has begun providing subsidies for evsaccording to figures from the japan automobile dealers association and the japan light motor vehicle and motorcycle association 4201321 automobiles were sold in japan last year a 56 decrease from 2021the omicron outbreak and the chinese lockdowns significantly reduced manufacturing making it impossible for automakers to meet demandjapans auto sales reached an alltime high of 777 million units in 1990 since then they have fallen by almost half additionally there is little chance that sales would significantly rebound in the near future due to the nations dwindling populationin 2006