Sales of passenger vehicles and two-wheelers in August were impacted due to floods in Kerala and heavy rainfall in other states.
Sales of Maruti Suzuki Ltd., the country’s largest carmaker, fell for the second straight month. It sold 1.58 lakh units last month, down 3.4 percent from the year-ago period, according to its exchange filing. Homegrown Tata Motors was the only company to report a double-digit growth in the passenger vehicles segment in the reporting month. Sales of sports utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra remained subdued.
Two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto, however, outpaced rivals in August. The company’s sales rose 30 percent year-on-year last month, according to its exchange filing. That compares with a 0.9 percent rise in sales for the country’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp, and an 8 percent and a 2 percent increase for TVS Motor and Eicher Motors’ Royal Enfield, respectively.
“Bajaj Auto excelled well in the export market,” Ashwin Patil, senior analyst at LKP Securities, told BloombergQuint in an interaction. “The domestic segment also reported healthy growth, driven by new launches.”
Truckmakers continued to grow in August. Most commercial vehicle makers reported double-digit growth last month. “The commercial vehicle makers have grown well, driven by a pick-up in infrastructure activities, ease of mining and healthy monsoon,” Patil said.
Patil expects moderate sales growth in September due to a delayed festive season and high base but anticipates growth to pick up in October and November.
