New Delhi, Sep 11
Low base effect along with pent-up demand pushed India's domestic private vehicle (PV) sales higher on a year-on-year basis in August.
However, challenges pertaining to electronic components' availability, coupled with high operating and ownership costs due to rising commodity prices, capped the sales uptrend.
Accordingly, sales of passenger vehicles increased to 2,32,224 units in August as compared to 2,15,916 units sold during the corresponding period of 2020.
On a sequential basis, August PV sales were lower than July's level of 2,64,442 units.
The data furnished by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) does not include sales figures from some key players such as Tata Motors.
The PV sales data comprises cars, utility vehicles and vans.
Segment-wise, a total of 1,08,508 passenger cars were sold in the domestic market in August, up from 1,24,715 units sold in the like period of 2020 and 1,09,277 units in 2019.
Similarly, the sales of other sub-categories such as UVs and vans grew on a year-on-year basis.
As per the data, UV sales rose to 1,12,863 units from 81,842 units, while the off-take of vans rose to 10,853 units from 9,359 units in the year-ago period.
In terms of two-wheelers, sales were lower in August 2021 at 13,31,436 units from 15,59,665 units sold in the like month of 2020 and 15,14,196 in 2019.
The overall domestic automobile sectors' off-take representing the sales of passenger vehicles, two-wheelers, three-wheelers and quadricycle fell to 15,86,873 units from 17,90,115 units sold during the same period of last year.
In addition, the data showed a YoY rise in exports. The overall exports, including PVs, two and three-wheelers and quadricycle, rose to 4,61,156 units from 3,33,876 units sold during the same period of last year.
"The Indian automobile industry is reeling under pressure due to supply chain challenges. The global semi-conductor shortage continues and now it is having an acute impact on output across the auto industry. In addition, high commodity prices are increasing the cost of production," said Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM.
According to Menon, looking at the cumulative sales from April to August 2021, the PV segment is still below the level of 2016-17, the two-wheeler segment is lower than the level of 2011-12, while the three-wheeler segment is behind by many years.
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