India's June car sales jump 29%; EVs and hybrids hit record share: Fada

Alternative-fuel vehicles account for a record 40.4% of retail car sales in June as higher petrol and diesel prices boost demand

India's appetite for electric, hybrid and compressed natural gas vehicles accelerated after the ​Iran war triggered fuel price hikes, the president ​of the country's auto dealers' body said, with ‌such models reaching a record share of passenger vehicle sales in June.

Alternative-fuel vehicles accounted for 40.35 per cent of PV retail sales in June, up from about 38 per cent a month earlier, as consumers increasingly sought cheaper running costs after petrol and diesel prices were raised several times in May.

"We need to watch whether this is an emotional knee-jerk reaction from customers or whether this growth is ‌here to stay," C.S. Vigneshwar, president of the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada), told Reuters on Monday. 

 

Overall vehicle sales rose 21.8 per cent to a record 2.6 million units, with PV sales rising 28.6 per cent year-on-year to 410,853 units.

Among PVs, CNG models accounted for 24.3 per cent of total sales, while hybrids made ​up 8.3 per cent and electric vehicles 7.8 per cent.

Industry leader Maruti Suzuki said last month that ‌bookings for its CNG cars jumped 40 per cent since the fuel price hikes.

The share of electric vehicles among ​overall ‌two-wheeler sales rose to 10.6 per cent, hitting the double-digit mark for the ‌first time, according to Fada.

While the worst of the crude shock and supply chain disruptions from the Iran war ‌seemed ​to be over, ​a return to complete normalcy could still take "a few quarters" and may involve some cost implications, said ‌Vigneshwar.