The wholesale dispatches of passenger vehicles in the domestic market were up 44.6% in July 2021 amid a challenging and uncertain business environment, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said on Thursday.
As per the data shared by the industry body, the passenger vehicle (PV) sales grew to over 2.64 lakh units last month as against about 1.82 lakh units in Jule 2020. The sales last month were also up 39% compared to pre-COVID July 2019 sales of about 1.90 lakh units.
Within PVs, car sales grew 26.% to about 1.30 lakh units, sales of utility vehicles and vans increased 73.7% to over 1.24 lakh units and 19.5% to 10,305 units, respectively.
Two-wheeler sales, however, fell a little over 2% to over 12.53 lakh units mainly due to decline in motorcycle sales. The data showed wholesales of scooters last month was up 9.5% to 3.6 lakh units, while motorcycle sales fell nearly 6% to 8.37 lakh units.
Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM said, “Indian Automobile Industry continues to face heavy headwinds in the form of global semiconductor shortage and steep rise in commodity prices.”
He added that on the one hand, the Industry is managing such supply chain challenges while ensuring safety of its people, and on the other hand also keeping a close eye on the onset of a 3rd wave in India and across the world.
“Amidst such challenging and uncertain business environment, Industry is trying to maximise production and sales. However, sales for the period of April to July 2021 for Passenger Vehicle segment are still lower than the level of 2016-17; for Two-wheeler segment, still lower than the level of 2010-11; and Three-wheeler segment has been pushed back by many years,” he added.
In July 2021, production of passenger vehicles in the country grew by 52.5% to over 3.33 lakh units, and that of two-wheelers rose 16.2% to about 17.02 lakh units.
Passenger vehicle manufacturers witnessed a 53% increase in exports during the month at 52,319 units. For two-wheeler makers, the exports more than doubled to over 3.77 lakh units.
