New Delhi: The Indian automobile industry which was one of the hardest hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, has seen a significant growth over the last three months after a series of phased relaxations with sales of car being on a constant rise.
Automakers holding a majority of the market share in India have reported a total 2,34,376 sale of car units last month and this, compared to the data of August 2019 in respect to the number of units sold, has been an increase of 20% in the sales of cars this year.
Month-on-month sales of cars have also posted a rise in the June to August quarter this year. A research by the State Bank of India (SBI) on the economic factors in India released this week shows that Maruti Suzuki, with one of India’s largest market shares in the automobile sector, has posted a month-on-month sale increase by 16%.
In July 2020, Maruti Suzuki sold 97,678 units of cars against 1,13,000 units of cars being sold in August this year. The year-on-year sale of cars for Maruti has also increased by 24%.
The other major players in the auto market including Hyundai, Tata Motors, Mahindra, Honda, Toyota, and Renault, among others, have also shown a sharp rise in sales on a month-on-month basis. According to the SBI report, Honda has seen the sharpest rise on a month-on-month basis in terms of its sale of cars.
The company has reported a significant growth of 39% in August this year, compared to July 2020. In August, Honda sold 7,509 units against 5,383 units sold in July this year.
Tata Motors recorded the highest year-on-year growth in terms of sales, recording a growth of 154% in August this year.
Tata Motors had sold just 7,316 cars in August last year and this year in August, the company has sold 18,583 cars in the Indian market. Kia Motors India and Renault have also recorded a sharp rise in the number of sales compared to last year. While Kia Motors India recorded a 74% growth in August this year compared to last year same period, Renault has registered a growth of 41% this year during the same period.
The SBI report also indicates that the sale of cars has been on the rise due to the common masses avoiding public transport for fear of the spread of the Covid-19 virus. The data from the SBI report further establishes this fact by posting that the number of sales has been on the rise for private and compact vehicles rather than of the sale of SUVs or heavy-duty vehicles. A closer look at the sales of cars data of Maruti Suzuki, segment wise, also gives the impression that cars belonging to the small, mini and compact segments have seen a rise in sales compared to the sale of SUVs and sedans.
According to Maruti Suzuki sales data, the mini car segment, which comprises Alto, S-Presso, Old WagonR, has seen a month-on-month growth of about 14%.
In June this year, the sales of cars from this segment was 10,458 units which increased to 19,709 units in August.
Even in the compact segment, which comprises cars like Swift, Celerio, Dzire, Baleno, Ignis and the new WagonR, there has been a 20.2% increase of sales over the last three months. Compared to June this year when 26,696 cars from this segment were sold, August recorded a sale of 54,274 car units from this segment.
Sales in the sedan segment of Maruti, comprising cars like Ciaz, have shown a decline of 9% and the SUV segment of Maruti, comprising cars like Gypsy, Ertiga, S-Cross, Brezza and XL6, has shown a slight month-on-month increase of just 9%.