Car sales rise for 14th straight month, surges 13% in December

Rising for the 14th straight month, car sales in the country surged by 12.87 per cent in December as customers were induced by the auto industry into buying new vehicles by offering record discounts.

According to data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic car sales in December stood at 1,72,671 units compared with 1,52,986 units in December 2014.

Overall passenger vehicle sales during the month grew by 10.46 per cent to 2,30,960 units as against 2,09,086 units in the year-ago period. For the calender year (January to December), car sales grew 9.8 per cent at 20,34,015 units.

The overall passenger vehicles grew 7.86 per cent to 27,72,745 units during the year. During last month, Maruti Suzuki India posted a growth of 13.48 per cent in its passenger vehicles sales at 1,11,333 units. Its car sales rose 11.62 per cent to 91,043 units during the period.

Hyundai Motor India saw increase by 28.79 per cent to 41,861 units in December. Its car sales jumped 14.4 per cent to 37,101 units during December compared with 32,429 units in the same period of previous year.

Honda Cars India’s sales stood at 12,122 units as against 12,308 units in the same month last year, down 1.51 per cent. Homegrown Tata Motors’ domestic car sales were at 6,900 units compared with 9,956 units in the same month previous year, down 30.69 per cent.

Utility vehicles major Mahindra & Mahindra saw its sales rise 1.33 per cent to 17,310 units as against 17,082 units in December 2014.