Sales of passenger vehicles grow 11% in July as semiconductor supply eases: SIAM

Auto OEMs in India saw a growth of 11% year-on-year in terms of passenger vehicle dispatches to dealers, buoyed by improvement in semiconductor supplies, as per data released by automobile manufacturing body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Last month, passenger vehicle wholesales rose to 2,93,865 units as compared to 2,64,442 units sold in July of 2021. Passenger car dispatches saw a growth of 10% year-on-year to 1,43,522 units in July of 2022 from 1,30,080 units in the year-ago period.

Wholesales of utility vehicles grew by 11% to 1,37,104 units in July as compared to 1,24,057 units in the corresponding month a year ago, SIAM data showed. Total production of passenger vehicles including three-wheelers, two-wheelers and quadricycles in April-July period rose to 8,267,268 units.

Last month, sales in the passenger vehicle segment stood at 2.9 lakh units, 13.8 lakh units in two-wheeler segment and 31 thousand units in three-wheeler segment, said Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM. “Market for entry-level passenger cars, two-wheelers and three-wheelers are yet to recover," he added.

Sales figures of two-wheelers last month are still below July 2016 numbers and sales of three-wheelers are still below July 2006 numbers. "Third hike in repo rates in a row, to rein in high inflation, will make auto loans costlier, making it more difficult for entry-level vehicles to recover," Menon said.

He further said that SIAM would like to whole-heartedly thank the Government of India “for the recent decision to allocate a higher amount of domestic gas for the CNG segment". With this move, the input cost of gas companies would significantly come down. "We hope that in line with the government's intent, the gas companies would pass on the entire benefit to the end consumers by reducing retail CNG prices," he added.

(with inputs from ANI)