Helped by better consumer sentiment and excise duty sops on vehicles, cars sales in the country rose 2.46 per cent during 2014. In 2013, car sales had registered a decline of 9.59 per cent, the first fall in car sales in eleven years.
Passenger car sales in January-December 2014 period rose to 18,51,475 units against 18,06,965 units in 2013, according to data released by Society of Indian Automobile Industry.
The industry body SIAM said while it does not see sales growth for 2014-15 fiscal to be negative due to cars getting dearer following expiry of excise duty cuts, growth is likely to be marginal at around one per cent.
“We do not expect negative growth for the fiscal. Only three months are left for the fiscal to end. While excise duty sops have expired, we are anticipating some positives in terms of lowering of interest rates. Globally, fuel prices are also coming down, that should also have a positive impact,” SIAM Deputy Director General Sugato Sen said.
He, however, added that the growth is likely to be marginally at around one per cent.
Meanwhile, in December, the domestic car sales soared 15.26 per cent to 1,52,743 units, mainly driven by advance purchases by customers in anticipation of price rise in January as it was expected that excise duty concessions will not be extended.
While the growth in December is highest so far in the ongoing fiscal, Sen said this is mainly because of the low base of last year when cars sales has declined considerable. He added that sequentially the sales are down as compared to November when the car sales stood at 1,56,445 units.
Asked about the commercial vehicle segment, which saw sales drop by 11.8 per cent to 6,06,232 units in 2014, Sen said the sector has seen some improvement but did not perform well as “real economic activity is still to gain steam”. Sales of commercial vehicles during December rose 9.01 per cent to 51,000 units in December.
As per the data, total two-wheeler sales last month rose 4.52 per cent to 12,12,996 units. While total scooter sales were up 24 per cent to 3,74,159 units, motorcycle sales declined 3.52 per cent to 7,79,908 units.
