Sale of cars rises 16.41%, motorcycles suffer reverses

New Delhi, Dec 11 (UNI) Domestic passenger car sale continues to post healthy double digit growth in November at 16.41 per cent led by market leader Maruti Suzuki India, while the downhill ride of motorcycles continued with a dip of 2.88 per cent.

According to the monthly sales figure by the Society of Automobile Manufacturer (SIAM), the total passenger car sale for the month of November is at 1,03,031 units as against 88,501 units in the corresponding month last year.

The sale for motorcycles in the month of November is at 5,40,553 units as compared to 5,56,612 units in the corresponding month last year.

However, the sale of scooter and scooterettee increased by 0.27 per cent to 89,078 units in November, while Mopeds posted a healthy growth of 14.72 per cent to 33,557 units.

Rising input costs and high interest rate have been the biggest dampener for the auto industry and the sales of bikes has been hit the biggest.

Car sales have managed a double digit growth, boosted by some recent launches and discounts coupled, with the festive season.

On the commercial vehicles side. the demand has been near sluggish this fiscal with sales in November 2007 increasing marginally by 0.37 per cent at 40,466 units as compared to 40,313 in the November, 2006.

The sales of three wheelers slumped by 12.48 per cent to 30,124 units as all major producers showed decline in sales with the exception of Piaggio Vehicles Pvt Ltd.

The cumulative growth for April to November shows domestic sales of automobiles have declined by 4.34 per cent to 646,2914 units as against 675,6194 units in the corresponding periods last year.

The cummulative growth of the Passenger Vehicles in segment during April-November 2007 was 13.93 per cent to 993,404 units.

Passenger cars grew by 13.78 per cent to 778,530 units, Multi Purpose Vehicles by 19.35 per cent to 62,340units and Utility Vehicles by 12.61 per cent to 152,534 units in April-November 2007 compared to the same period last year.

On a cummulative basis, the sales of two wheelers continue to post negative growth with sales declining by 7.64 per cent to 4923,928 units during April-November 2007 over the same period last year.

Automobile exports grew by 17.39 per cent to 800,524 units during April-November 2007 over the same period last year.

Exports were led by two wheelers which grew by 24.34 per cent, to 535,950 units followed by commercial vehicles exports at 16.02 per cent to 36,122 units, three wheelers exports at 4.35 per cent to 92,915 units and passenger vehicles exports at 3.70 per cent to 135,537 units.

UNI