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Passenger Vehicle Sales Fall For Ninth Straight Month In July As Auto Slowdown Deepens

All vehicle categories witnessed a decline in sales in July.

Trucks at a Tata Motors’ yard in Jamshedpur. Commercial vehicle sales in July were down 37.48 percent year-on-year to 17,722 units. (Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg)
Trucks at a Tata Motors’ yard in Jamshedpur. Commercial vehicle sales in July were down 37.48 percent year-on-year to 17,722 units. (Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg)

India’s auto slowdown continued for a ninth straight month in July as sales of cars and utility vehicles recorded their steepest decline in almost two decades.

Domestic sales of passenger vehicles fell 30.98 percent year-on-year to 200,790 units in July, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. That’s the steepest decline since December 2000 when passenger vehicle sales fell 35.22 percent, SIAM data showed.

“This is the steepest and most engulfing kind of downturn where every segment has been impacted,” Vishnu Mathur, director general of SIAM, told BloombergQuint. “The auto crisis has further deepened in this month.”

Auto sales in India have been falling since the Diwali festival last year as higher fuel prices and increased upfront insurance costs kept buyers away. Year-end discounts too failed to boost demand, leading to a pile-up of inventory at dealerships. The prolonged slowdown has now forced auto and auto parts makers to cut production, lay off contract workers and shut showrooms across the country.

The SIAM data, according to Mathur, only showed how urgent is the need for a revival package from the government. The industry has taken all the measures to come out of the crisis, he said, adding nearly 10 lakh jobs are at risk as the slowdown deepens.

A revival package, including lowering of goods and services tax rates, improvement in financing and vehicle scrappage policy, can help the industry, Mathur said. “We have seen in the past two downturns that a timely revival package has helped the industry to get back on its feet.”

Here’s how sales in other segments fared in July:

  • Domestic car sales were down 35.95 percent at 122,956 units.
  • Motorcycle sales dropped 18.88 percent to 933,996 units.
  • Two-wheeler sales declined 16.82 percent to 1,511,692 units.
  • Sales of commercial vehicles fell 37.48 percent to 17,722 units.

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