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Passenger vehicle wholesales in India touched a record high of 42,18,746 units in the financial year 2023-24, registering a year-on-year growth of 8.4 per cent on the back of robust demand for utility vehicles, industry body SIAM said on Friday.
As per the latest data issued by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the overall passenger vehicle dispatches stood at 38,90,114 units in fiscal year 2022-23.
Two-wheeler sales were up 13.3 per cent last fiscal at 1,79,74,365 units, as compared to 1,58,62,771 units in the financial year 2022-23.
Vehicle sales across categories rose by 12.5 per cent to 2,38,53,463 units in the period under review, as against 2,12,04,846 units in fiscal year 2022-23.
Exports, however, saw a drop of 5.5 per cent at 45,00,492 units last fiscal, as compared to 47,61,299 units in FY23.
"On the backdrop of a robust economic growth of 7.6 per cent based on conducive policies of the government of India, the Indian automobile industry has posted a satisfactory performance with domestic industry growing by 12.5 per cent during the last financial year," SIAM president Vinod Aggarwal told reporters in New Delhi.
He said the growth was led by the passenger vehicles (PV) segment which almost touched 50 lakh units in overall sales, which included 42 lakh units of domestic sales and 7 lakh units of exports.
Within the PV segment, utility vehicles including SUVs grew by 25.8 per cent in FY24 at 25,20,691 units, as against 20,03,718 units in FY23, SIAM said.
Aggarwal said the two-wheeler segment continued the recovery path with a growth of over 13 per cent in domestic sales to almost 1.8 crore units, even though it was still lower than the earlier peak of 2.1 crore units in FY19.
However, he said the entry-level categories of both passenger cars and two-wheelers continued to face challenges as the rural economy has not fully recovered.
"The domestic commercial vehicle industry had a marginal growth to 97 lakh units and within that, some drop was experienced in light commercial vehicles (LCVs) and small commercial vehicles (SCVs) due to degrowth in the CNG segment," he said.
The growth in commercial vehicles was also impacted due to migration to higher tonnage trucks which created higher payload capacity, which is not reflected in the number of units.
In the three-wheeler segment, he said the industry is almost close to the earlier peak of 7 lakh units in FY19.
On sales outlook for the current fiscal, Aggarwal said the auto industry remains optimistic as the macroeconomic outlook remains positive.
"Coupled with a good monsoon outlook, we are expecting continued growth for the industry this year as well," he added.
The industry may see single-digit growth in the current fiscal, Aggarwal said.
He noted that there could be some slowdown in the market due to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections but that is expected to lead to a robust pent up demand in the rest of the year.
In March, passenger vehicles wholesales registered an increase of 9 cent year-on-year at 3,17,976 units, SIAM said.
Dispatches of passenger vehicles (PVs) from manufacturers to dealers were at 2,92,030 units in March 2023.
Two-wheeler domestic wholesales were at 14,87579 units last month, as against 12,90,553 units in March 2023.
Three-wheeler wholesales were at 56,723 units, as compared to 54,360 units in the year-ago month.
Total vehicle dispatches across categories were at 18,62,309 units last month, as compared with 16,37,048 units in March 2023, SIAM said.