India’s domestic auto sales rose 25 percent to 2,279,151 units in June this year, driven by robust sales in passenger vehicles and increase in demand for two-wheelers in rural areas, said a report.

Domestic car sales were up 34.21 percent at 1,83,885 units against 1,37,012 units in the same period last year, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

The sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment expanded at a faster rate than cars, SIAM said, adding that the domestic SUV sales grew by 47 percent to 73,654 units in June.

The report also highlighted that there is a shift in preferences among consumers from large cars to SUVs. Thus, SUV segment is expected to clock strong growth in 2018-19.

However, the prolonged impact of pay commission arrears can lead to some slowdown in car sales in coming months, SIAM said.

The two-wheeler sales last month increased by 22.3 percent to 11,99,332 units from 9,64,729 units a year earlier. The two-wheeler sales are likely to keep up the momentum assuming normal monsoon and strong rural sentiments, according to SIAM.

Sales of commercial vehicles (CVs) were up 41.7 percent at 80,624 units. The surge in the commercial vehicle segment was largely due to the low-base effect due to Bharat Stage-IV (BS-IV) emission norms, which came into effect on April 1, last year, the report added.

However, the government’s push towards infrastructure execution before election and increase in infrastructure expenditure with focus on housing construction under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna and irrigation is likely to improve the CVs sales in remaining months of this fiscal.

During the quarter April-June 2018, the overall vehicle sales were up 18 percent to 6,942,612 units as compared to 5,882,912 units in the same quarter last year.

The passenger vehicle and two-wheeler sales grew by 20 percent and 16 percent respectively, during the April-June quarter this year. Total commercial vehicles sales were up by 51.6 percent during the same period.

First Published:Jul 10, 2018 3:16 PM IST