Passenger vehicle sales in India up 26.7% in FY23: SIAM

Wholesale passenger vehicle volumes for the year rose to 3.9 million units from 3.1 million units a year ago, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), which records sales to dealers, said.

Auto sales are among the key indicators used to assess India’s private consumption, as it has a weighting of more than 50% in calculating economic growth.

Despite inflation trending higher through the year, a mix of improved chip supply, higher incomes and pent-up demand, especially for SUVs supported sales at Indian automakers.

Buying ahead of implementation of new fuel emission norms, and strong demand during the festival season also drove sales towards the end of the year.

Domestic wholesales of passenger vehicles grew 4.7 per cent in March at 2,92,030 units as compared to the same month last year, SIAM said. In March last year, wholesales of passenger vehicles were at 2,79,525 units.
Two-wheeler sales clocked 12,90,553 units in the domestic market last month, as compared to 11,98,825 units in the year-ago period.

Total vehicle wholesales last month stood at 16,37,048 units, as compared to 15,10,534 units a year ago, it added.

For the fiscal ended March 31, domestic wholesales of passenger vehicles were at 38,90,114 units, as compared to 30,69,523 units in the previous year.

Two-wheeler wholesales in FY23 were at 1,58,62,087 units, as against 1,35,70,008 units in FY22, SIAM said.
Total vehicles wholesales across categories were higher at 2,12,04,162 units in FY23, as against 1,76,17,606 units in FY22, SIAM said.

Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors reported their highest-ever dispatches to dealers last fiscal, enabling the domestic passenger vehicle industry to log in best-ever performance to date.

The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India reported its highest wholesales to date at 19,66,164 units, up 19 per cent from 16,52,653 units in 2021-22.

Its domestic dispatches rose to 17,06,831 units in 2022-23, up 21 per cent from 14,14,277 units in 2021-22 fiscal.

Hyundai Motor India said its overall wholesales last fiscal were the highest ever since commencing operations in the country.

Tata Motors also reported the best-ever passenger vehicle dispatches in the domestic market last fiscal at 5,38,640 units, up 45 per cent from 3,70,372 units FY22.

Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Shashank Srivastava said the company reported its highest-ever sales in a financial year despite chip shortage continuing to impact the production activity.

“We expect the industry growth to be in the range of 5-7 per cent this fiscal and the company would like to perform better than the industry,” Srivastava said.

Earlier this month, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) said that the Indian automobile industry in fiscal 2023-24 is expected to see a single digit growth after closing the FY23 with double digit growth.

As the high-growth period has now passed, FY’24 is expected to see tapered growth in the low single digits due to a high base, inflationary pressures, routine price hikes, and regulatory changes, FADA said.

Additionally, for the third consecutive month, US Government agencies have warned of the possibility of El NiAo’s arrival later this year, which could lead to poor monsoons, hampering rural India’s growth potential.

According to FADA, the untimely rains and hailstorms in North and Central India have destroyed key rabi crops and delayed harvesting, negatively impacting rural sales. The year will also witness high electric vehicle (EV) penetration which will eat into the internal combustion engine (ICE) market share.

Data showed that the retail sales of passenger vehicles reached a record high of 3.6 million vehicles, growing 23 per cent YoY. The previous high was in FY’19 when retail sales were 3.2 million vehicles.