Passenger Vehicles sales may decline in August 2024, two-wheeler sales expected to increase

The growth in the two-wheeler industry is pegged at 8% this August. According to a report by the wealth and investment firm Nuvama, two-wheeler sales are on an uptick in August due mainly to strong rural demand and selling in the cities. Favorable monsoons have improved rural sentiments, boosting sales ditto.

As against this, wholesale sales are expected to be higher than retail sales due to inventory build-up by dealers in anticipation of the upcoming festive period. At Rs. Sales in the domestic market are thus expected to decline marginally by about three% in the passenger vehicle segment.

Such sluggish performance in the passenger vehicle segment is due to a high base effect created by the onset of the festive season last year. The commercial vehicle industry may see a marginal decline in annual growth by about 4% in the home market, the report said.

It is indicated in the report that the automobile industry would see a mixed bag in terms of sales across categories in August, FY 2024-25. While the two-wheeler segment will grow, the passenger vehicle segment will remain challenging.

Two-wheelers and passenger cars have respective shares of 75.3% and 17.6% of the automobile market in India. Small and mid-sized cars have dominated passenger car sales, although SUV sales have blessedly seen a strong uptick during recent years.

India had exported 45,00,492 vehicles last fiscal, of which two-wheelers accounted for 76.8% of the total. Exports of passenger vehicles had increased from 6,62,891 units in the same period a year ago to 6,72,105 units, up 13.8 percent in positive growth terms. India has plans to double the size of its auto industry to Rs 15 lakh crore by the end of 2024.