Siam cuts passenger vehicles growth forecast on infra cess

In contrast, two-wheelers fared much better with an 11% growth

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) on Thursday cut the growth forecast for passenger vehicles  (PVs) sales for the ongoing and next financial year, expecting demand to suffer due to the infrastructure cess of up to four per cent announced in the Union Budget.

It has pegged the sales growth for PVs at six-eight per cent this financial year and 11 per cent for the next.

Passenger car sales have declined for a second straight month. February sales fell 4.2 per cent to 164,469 units from the corresponding period last year. Passenger vehicle (PV) sales, including SUVs and vans, grew 1.7 per cent in the month. Within PVs, utility vehicle sales grew 21 per cent in February, justifying the spate of launches in the segment by automobile companies.

In the financial year to date (April 2015 to February 2016), sales of PVs grew 7.5 per cent over the same period a year before. Within this, passenger cars, utility vehicles and vans grew 8.7per cent, 4.8 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively. Exports during February grew 13.8 per cent over a year before, to 45,394 units.

Two-wheelers fared much better. Sales of motorcycles grew 11 per cent in February and of scooters by 17.7 per cent over the corresponding period a year before. After declining for months, mopeds reported 4.7 per cent growth in February.

In April 2015-February 2016, sales of two-wheelers grew 2.3 per cent over these 11 months of 2014-15. Within the segment, scooters have grown 11.6 per cent; motorcycles and mopeds declined 1.1 per cent and 4.1 per cent, respectively.

Medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales grew substantially in the month. MHCV sales (goods carriers) grew 35.7 per cent and passenger carriers grew 26.8 per cent over the comparable period a year before. Light CV sales grew 9.7 per cent in February, with goods carriers growing about this much and passenger carriers by 11.7 per cent.

The automobile industry produced a total of 21,820,072 vehicles in these 11 months of 2015-16, against 21,460,837 a year before. This is 1.7 per cent more.