17% dip in April: Passenger vehicle sales drop most in seven and half years

Passenger vehicle sales in India dropped 17 per cent in April - their worst monthly fall in nearly eight years, data from an industry body showed on Monday, as weak sentiment, high insurance costs and a liquidity crunch dented car sales.

Sales of passenger vehicles dived to 247,541 in April versus 298,504 a year earlier, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers showed. Two-wheeler sales dropped 16.4 per cent to about 1.6 million vehicles.

Motorcycle sales last month declined 11.81 per cent to 10,84,811 units as against 12,30,046 units a year earlier.

Total two-wheeler sales in April declined 16.36 per cent to 16,38,388 units compared to 19,58,761 units in the year-ago month.

Sales of commercial vehicles were down 5.98 per cent to 68,680 units in April, SIAM said.

Vehicle sales across categories registered a decline of 15.93 per cent to 20,01,096 units from 23,80,294 units in April 2018, it added.

Last month, the country's biggest automaker Maruti Suzuki Ltd said it sold 458,479 vehicles in the three months ended March 31, down 0.7 percent on-year, and forecast a weak rate of growth for the current fiscal year.

Vishnu Mathur, director general, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, said some kind of recovery in sales will come only after the general elections are over as consumers resume thinking on discretionary spends.
 

Tata Motors Monday reported 22 per cent decline in group global wholesales, including that of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), at 79,923 units in April 2019.

Global wholesales of all Tata Motors' commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in April 2019 were at 31,726 units, lower 20 per cent year-on-year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The company further said its global wholesales of all passenger vehicles last month were at 48,197 units, down 23 per cent from the year-ago month.

For JLR, global wholesales were at 35,451 units. Jaguar wholesales for the month were 13,301 units and those of Land Rover for the month were 22,150 units, it added.