Indian passenger car sales, as denoted by despatches from factory to dealer showed a strong positive trend in April this year, but the pace of sales growth was seen to be moderating, data released by leading automobile companies showed on Thursday, May 4.
The country’s largest passenger carmaker, in terms of market share, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), reported total passenger car domestic sales at 137,320 units in April this year, up 12.6 percent year on year.
The second largest passenger carmaker, Hyundai Motors India Limited (HMIL), reported sales of 58,201 units, up 3.5 percent, and Tata Motors Limited’s passenger car division reported sales of 47,007 units, up 13 percent, year on year.
Mahindra & Mahindra sold 34,698 units of passenger cars in April, a growth of 54 percent, and MG Motors India Limited sold 4,551 units, a rise of 126 percent.
At the aggregate level, the total number of passenger cars despatched by all automobile companies to dealers was reported at 331,774 units in April, up 12.9 percent year on year but down from 14 percent in March this year.
However, retail sales as denoted by new registration of passenger cars were reported at 282,674 units in April, according to the Federation of Automobile Dealers’ Association (FADA), registering a decline of one percent over retail sales in the corresponding month of the previous year. This, analysts said, indicated that automobile manufacturers were pushing volumes from factory to dealers but the number of actual buyers was marginally lower.