June domestic passenger car sales slide

Passenger cars sales declined by 5.18 per cent in June to 154,237 units from 162,655 units sold during the corresponding month of last year, industry data showed on Monday.

In contrast, the utility vehicles' (UVs) off-take zoomed in the month under review. The segment's sales were buoyed by new launches.

Industry data showed that utility vehicles' sales accelerated by 35.24 per cent to 55,825 units.

"We have seen some recovery in sales during June. However, the sales of passenger cars declined," said Vishnu Mathur, Director General, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

"The decline in passenger cars' sales was more or less compensated by the robust growth in the UV segment," Mathur said at an event held here to release the sales data.

Mathur credited the growth in sales of UVs' segment to the new launches of compact sports utility vehicles (SUV).

According to SIAM, the total passenger vehicle sales, which includes cars, utility vehicles and vans, went up by 2.68 per cent to 223,454 units in the month under review.

The industry data disclosed a 5.63 per cent sales growth in the overall commercial vehicles segment, which is a key indicator of economic activity.

The commercial vehicles segment's off-take for June, 2016 stood at 56,032 units.

Three-wheelers sales, too, clocked a healthy growth of 10.22 per cent to 48,373 units last month.

Overall, sales of two-wheelers, which includes scooters, motorcycles and mopeds, grew exponentially. The segment's sales rose by 12.26 per cent to 1,468,035 units.

Product-wise, scooter sales in the month under review grew by 21.32 per cent to 449,756 units, whereas the motorcycle sub-segment sales, logged a growth of 7.52 per cent to 943,680 units.

Besides, mopeds' off-take zoomed by 25.79 per cent to 74,599 units.

However, overall exports across categories declined by 10.70 per cent to 282,533 units which were shipped out during last month.

Total automobile sales last month were higher by 10.70 per cent to 1,795,894 units from 1,622,254 units sold in June, 2015.

--IANS

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